Naruto Redux
by bradw316
Summary: Inspiration from EroSlackerMicha. Sakura goes back to the beginning to save the man she loves and hopefully change the future. Strong/Powerful Naruto and Sakura
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

The alarm going caused a pale pink eyebrow to scrunch up before a light groan could be heard. "Naruto-kun, it's a weekend turn off the damn alarm," the figure shifted trying to snuggle into something that was not there. Suddenly the figure sat up jade green eyes opened wide looking around. Sakura took several deep breaths looking around the room. "My childhood bedroom, then the jutsu was successful," Sakura's eyes water rubbing her face with her hands, "I can't believe it worked," she laughed weakly while the tears ran down her face.

Sakura Haruno Uzumaki stood up looking at her twelve year old self in the mirror and almost scowled at the image. Before her was the image of the flirtatious Uchiha fangirl, the image that had constantly put down her future husband and limited her own capabilities. "I'm going to destroy this image, starting with," the rosette haired girl grabbed a kunai lying on her dresser and with one swift slice; her long pink locks were cut and dropped to the ground. "I'm not Sakura Haruno, Uchiha fangirl; I will be Sakura Uzumaki, Naruto's future wife, confidant, and mother to his children." At that thought she frowned, thinking of the four children she and Naruto had raised before their deaths by their former…teammate. _Minato__, Jiraiya, Nagato, Kushina, my poor babies, I miss you four so much. I will remember and love you always._ Sakura knew that even with the best chances, it was highly unlikely for the triplets and her baby girl would be born as they were. After all, sperm and egg relationships and whether or not they split and how many times they do is a random thing. _However I can hold on to the hope that you four will be born again in some fashion. I will live for you though and raise any child I have with your father I will love with the same love and care we did for you._

Taking a few deep breaths, she wiped the tears from her eyes and scooped up the hair depositing it into the trash. There were a few stray strands still on the floor, but it was still less than the amount of hair she sees other girls parting with when they run their hands through their hair. She then looked into her closet wincing at what she saw, a shrine to her former crush, littered with photos, stray strands of hair, kunai, shuriken, ash from that fireball jutsu of his, fingernails, academy papers he left on his desk, _is that blood?_ Sakura visibly cringed now seeing her past self in a whole new disturbing light. _Okay this is the first thing to go! _With some difficulty she lifted the shrine and tossed it out her bedroom window.

She turned back when she heard a feminine pained shout. Looking out the window she saw her shrine land on a purple-haired girl around her age. _Wait is that Ami? Should I apologize? I mean it was-_ she couldn't finish the thought when she burst into laughter. _Hell no! That bitch deserved it anyway! That's for all those years of hazing me in the academy, you skank! _Looking out her window, she was visibly disturbed to see Ami salvaging her discarded shrine and running back to her house with a squeal praising Kami her new gift from above. Sakura face-palmed herself…hard. _Please tell me I wasn't that bad all those years ago._

_**No, we were worse, CHA!**_ Inner Sakura stated loudly.

With that hurdle over, she turned back to her closet and saw red… literally. "Looks like I'm going to need to either make some alterations or get a whole new wardrobe," with a sigh she pulled out one of her battle dresses and scowled at it as she put it on. Turning back to the wardrobe and frowning deeply. "New outfits definitely, even with alterations these things are abominations and more so than Naruto-kun's orange jumpsuits at least he had an excuse."

Walking out of her room, she went downstairs heading down into the kitchen, watching as her mother made breakfast, "M-Morning mom," she stuttered a bit trying to hold in her emotions. _This could be harder than I first imagined._ Her mother, Mebuki Haruno was her splitting image… if she had blonde hair. Yes, Sakura had actually gotten her natural hair color from her late father, Kizashi Haruno. Her father was a successful merchant a light hearted, loving father, and husband. Sakura had been grateful he hadn't died during the Kyuubi attack. No he, and one of the genin teams he had hired to escort him to Tetsu no Kuni had died in a bandit ambush when Sakura was five. It was only thanks to Ino that she grew out of the shell she formed around herself to cope.

She took a few cleansing breath then frowned at her meager breakfast, "Um mom, where's the rest of my breakfast?"

Her mother turned blinking and smiled a bit, "So going off your diet already?"

Sakura mentally slapped herself. _Number three of a dozen things I'm going need to change. By Kami how completely stupid, I was! And look at my chakra reserves! _Sakura mentally checked her chakra reserves and while larger this time around was still smaller than what she had in her previous life. _I do have more yin chakra than I am used to having, must be the time travel. But geeze it is going to be a pain getting myself back up to where I was before the three year training with Tsunade-sensei and the war._ Sakura simply nodded to her mother and watched her helpings get larger. Having shoveled down her breakfast, she was about to leave when she heard a gasp. Turning she saw her mother looking at her in shock.

"Sakura-chan, what happened to your hair?" Mebuki asked looking at her.

The rosette simply shrugged running her hand through her shortened hair, "I felt like shortening it," glancing casually at the calendar which showed the graduation exam, would be the next day. "That means," she mutters then giggles remembering the day. "I'll be a ninja in a couple of days felt like a change would be good for me," she paused. "Um, speaking of changes mom, is their anyway we can go shopping for some new clothes those battle dresses need to go?"

Her mother blinked a moment, "I think so, if not I have some of your aunt's old patterns she left me before she disappeared, I'm pretty sure I could alter them. But why are you changing so much? Did something happen with Sasuke?" From Mebuki's knowledge, Sakura had been infatuated with that boy ever since she started going to the academy. It was rather strange for her daughter to change so abruptly when just yesterday she was bragging about how she sat next to him in class. _This could be a good thing though. That shrine of hers creeped the hell out of me. I think I even saw hair, fingernails and blood._

Sakura snorted crossing her arms trying to hide her disgust, "That teme, he doesn't even notice me and when he does he glares at me telling me to leave him alone; so I think it's finally time to let Naruto have his chance."

Her mother froze for a second turning to her, her expression not one of fear, hatred or disdain; but one of confusion. Mebuki's sister often told her to form her own opinions on the blonde boy. When she asked why, she was told that her sister held complete faith in her sensei's seal. "Naruto Uzumaki?"

Sakura nods and smiled faintly, "yeah, he's kind of had this crush on me since my first year at the academy," she replied tying her red ribbon in her hair and waving goodbye to her mother. Heading toward the academy, she noted how shocked her mother was at mentioning she was actually going to let Naruto have a chance. She hated having been so shallow in her early years._ But all of that is going to change, I want my husband back. I want his arms around me, again on those long cold nights._ She paused as her thoughts changed to the perverted. _And I want him to plow into me until my brain turns to mush and with his stamina that never took very long._ Inner Sakura giggled perversely at the thoughts cascading over the both of them.

XXX

Sakura walked quietly, watching many people going about their day some even friendly enough to give her a wave in greeting. She half waved back at them heading for her class glancing up every now and then at the Hokage monument shaking her head. Today was the day Naruto painted the Hokage Monument. _He painted the entire Hokage Monument in broad daylight in front of the entire village, wearing a neon orange jumpsuit and not a single person notice until he was done and he started laughing like a mad man. What was I thinking when I was chasing after that teme, not even fully trained Jonin could have pulled this off._ She grinned when she had an idea stopping in midstride.

Sakura raced back to her house and emptied her piggy bank. _Just enough. Besides today is a review day, and seeing as I have basically already lived it there is nothing really to study for. So what better way to spend my day than with the love of my life, Cha!_ She raced to a hardware store where she bought several cans each of black, white, red, gray, silver, dark brown, light brown, yellow, blue, and flesh colored paints. Paying extra to have her contents sealed into a scroll she raced toward the monument to see Naruto setting up shop.

Seeing him about to start abusing the monument, Sakura called out to him, "Naruto wait!"

Naruto froze abruptly he was about to start work on the monument to prove the village that he should be the next Hokage when he heard his crush call out to him, "S-Sakura-chan! It is not what it looks like! Honest!" He was going to tell her more when she walked up to him. He braced himself expecting her usual brain crushing hit. What he got was something wet and rough on his nose as his sinuses were filled with a strong odor of chalk and ink. He visibly cringed at the smell but paused when he heard giggling. Opening his eyes, instead of seeing his nose, he saw a blob of white paint, and his crush giggling at him with the incriminating paint brush in her hands.

Sakura tried not to laugh, honestly she did, but the rush from her first prank, and seeing the love of her life alive and well was too much for her. She had to stamp down hard her first reaction at seeing him, which was to put her arms around him and never let him go. Seeing him frown at her she stopped laughing and wiped the tears from her eyes. She held up her hand as he was about to speak, "Save it Naruto. If we want to get this finished before the academy lets out, we'd better start now." Seeing his puzzled look she sighed, "The monument Naruto-kun, the two of us are going to paint the Hokage Monument, only instead of defacing it with Kabuki like you were planning I had a better idea. We should give something back to the public, remake the Monument and make it last."

Seeing her supporting him in this endeavor and hearing the suffix to his name, Naruto's face almost broke from his huge grin. "All right! Let's get to it Dattebayo!"

XXX

**[This scene was inspired by The Gallant Toad Sage and his work Restart Part 2. Be sure to read it everybody! It felt right putting this scene into another time travel story.]**

They had just finished painting the Monument. Each Hokage looked like they did when they were in their prime, complete with eyes colored and all. Sakura took extreme care in making her future father-in-law look like he did before he sealed the Kyuubi into his son. The dynamic duo had them painted to be smiling warmly upon the village with kind gazes. Instead of four solemn rock-formations looking down on the village, one would instead see the four giant heads of the Hokage smiling as they protect the village. What was special about this paint was the fact that it held special properties. By storing chakra into the paint, the image would never fade, be it time or rain. And with Naruto's chakra pumped into each paint can prior to painting, the paint and Monument will be there long after the village was gone.

With their work done, Sakura and Naruto had an impromptu paint using the brushes. Their skin and clothes littered with paint blotches and a few angry red marks from where the brushes rubbed to roughly. Needless to say they were laughing and having a fun time. Something that Sakura had missed out on the last time because of her unhealthy feelings towards someone who never had or would returned those feelings to her.

It was this scene that Hiruzen Sarutobi, Koharu, Homura, Danzo, Iruka Umino and a small brigade of chunin came upon.

Naruto spotted the old man first, "Hey Ojii-san! I made you young again! See?" The man in the pointy hat chuckled. Everything he did, Naruto did with the best intentions.

Iruka was the first to react with is big head jutsu, "What the hell do you two think you are doing? This mountain is sacred and you defaced it with paint! Naruto, I can understand, but you Sakura? I thought you were a good student. Clean it up now!" Naruto was cowering behind Sakura, but she stood tall and proud.

"Sorry Iruka-sensei, but the paint is permanent fused with Naruto's chakra. That paint is never coming off," she smiled fondly. "Besides, I think the village will like it this way. It is almost like we have brought them to life."

One stray chunin scoffed, Sakura glared at him cursing that she couldn't off the silver-haired traitor, "I don't care change it back now!"

Iruka looked at the Monument a bit more carefully and had to admit it looked pretty good, every Hokage looked like they did in their prime and the detail was amazing, especially the Fourth Hokage. He turned to his fellow instructor, Mizuki, "Why do you hate it Mizuki? Looking at it now I find it to be a calming and reassuring image."

_Damn Demon lover! _Mizuki discreetly glared at Naruto, though not discreetly enough for Sakura glare right back at him, "Because they were meant to be the way they were before. It was the will of the previous Hokage to be preserved in rock. By...coloring them, these two have shown that they disrespect their immortal image."

**[Copied speech time, sorry it is just too good to stick in one story]**

Sakura interrupted him, "Stone isn't immortal. Like all this, time will wash it away. Do you see this mountain? It'll be gone one day. Do you see his body?" Sakura said, pointing at Naruto, "It'll be dust one day. Time, Mizuki-sensei, is an excellent teacher, but it kills its students. The only thing immortal is the soul and its will of fire. You want them to be immortal? Then honor their memory. The past Hokage weren't stoned faced and unsmiling. That is disrespect if you think that is how they looked at the village. That," She said, pointing to the freshly colored mountain, "Is how they truly looked upon the village. With love of its people and what the Village stands for. That is the way they would want it if they were here today." It was an amazing speech; sadly it was ruined by her paint riddled form.

Naruto stood beside her, with his arms behind his head with a wide grin, "Yeah, the Hokage live forever in our hearts! Will of fire and all of that, Dattebayo!"

_I'll kill you yet you damned demon, then I'll deal with your new whore!_ Mizuki glared at the blonde urchin like he was something he found under his shoe before turning away. "I still say it was better the way it was before."

It was at this point Hiruzen cut in, "I don't know, I kinda like looking at myself with no wrinkles," he turned to the rest of the bingo club, "What do you think?"

Homura adjusted his glasses before smiling fondly, "I rather like it, and it feels like Tobi-sensei is here with us again."

Koharu's usual frown turned into a wide smile as her eyes opened slightly to show a hint of green, "It does doesn't it?" she smiled fondly, "it feels good to see his face again."

Danzo opened his lone eye and…smiled? Yup the old stone faced Danzo actually smiled. He turned to the pair of students, "Say, do you think you could paint me up on this rock?"

Sakura smirked, "Only when you make the cut first, Danzo-jii-sama."

Naruto grinned cheekily, "And before that you'll have to wait till I give it up! Dattebayo!"

Everyone who knew Danzo paled at what these cheeky brats just said. It got worse when they saw his shoulders shaking. But instead of snarling in anger, Danzo was…laughing? Hiruzen looked around worriedly thinking he was going to be assassinated with how hard and loud Danzo was laughing. "You two have guts. I see you will go far in the world of shinobi." With that Danzo disappeared in a shunshin to who knows where.

With the excitement over, Iruka and Mizuki turned to Naruto and Sakura grabbing each by the arm. "Come now you two, we have to get to the academy afternoon class is about to begin." And with that the instructor and student pairs disappeared in a shunshin as well. The other chunin followed suit. Leaving Sarutobi with his teammates.

Taking a drag from his pipe, Sarutobi chuckled, "ol stubby is right, they will go far."

XXX

She sighed happily as she and her future husband entered the classroom with their instructor and the potential back-stabbing traitor. She spotted everyone gathered and winced mentally as she put the sight of their deaths to their faces. _Ino died defending a weakened Choji. Choji eventually dies from extreme chakra exhaustion brought on by those damned Akimichi food pills he used to give his calorie control mastery an extra boost. Shikamaru was killed by Sasuke and Madara after giving everything he had and was promoted to Elite Jonin posthumously by Naruto-kun. Kiba died defending his home and family; as well as Kurenai-sensei and her baby. Shino died after every one of his kikai bugs had been destroyed by Madara. Hinata died from a Chidori through the heart by Sasuke, but not before she had weakened him enough for Naruto to slam a Rasenshuriken into him completely obliterating him. That's only the rookie eleven; Lee, Tenten, and Neji had similar fates. Worse Tenten had been two months pregnant with Lee's third child._ Sakura walked quietly towards her seat next to Ino who was currently sitting next to Sasuke. She jumped a bit when she felt Naruto squeeze her hand softly. She turned to him with a serene smile before looking towards Ino. She frowned a bit at how she ruined their friendship over a stupid crush that wasn't worth it all those years ago. _It is time to make things right. It is stupid to keep this distance between us. I am not losing my best friend again._ With a deep breath she hardened her resolve and marched up the stairs sitting next to her, with Naruto in the aisle seat.

"Hey forehead, what's with the paint and why are you hanging out with the dobe? Finally realize that Sasuke-kun is too good for you?" Ino teased, the rosette haired girl gave a weak smile and sat down. Naruto made to defend Sakura's honor but was stopped once again by her raised hand.

"As if Ino-pig," she replied. "I realized I am too good for Sasuke," GASP! Every recipient in the room, including the instructors started paying attention to Sakura's conversation. "I mean excluding Hinata, every girl in here has fawned over the Uchiha for the past what five years, all it got us is a whole lot of nothing," Here Sakura did her best impression of an Uchiha grunt whilst brooding, and then performed the fangirl squeal-n-sigh combo. "For what, for a boy whose balls haven't even dropped yet, and who doesn't give any of us the time of day? Hell, he could be gay."

Sakura's rant was interrupted by a cry of "Bull shit!" Everyone looked around looking for the source of the shout, only to realize it came from their resident Uchiha himself. "I'm not GAY!"

Sakura scoffed, "Hmph, prove it!" At Sasuke's confused look, she continued, "Kiss Ino-pig and hold it! With tongue, and I had better see those hands moving south across her back till they can't go no more!"

To everyone's surprise, he conceded, "Fine, come here Ino." To everyone's surprise, but especially Ino's, he started frenching her as his hands slowly moved down her back. Gathering her senses about her, Ino's tongue started to fight Sasuke's back into his mouth before his pushed hers out and they fought to gain oral ground. Feeling his hands on her ass, Ino brought her arms to the back of his neck and pushed him closer to her.

It was at this point that to everyone's disappointment, Iruka ended the spectacle, bringing the content rating back to TV-G. "That is quite enough; you two can either continue this after school or in detention." Ino and Sasuke broke apart faster than you could say 'Itachi'.

Sasuke surprised everyone again however when he turned to Ino once more, "Hn, fine so Ino-chan, are you doing anything later today or what?"

Ino turned towards Sakura mouthing, "thank you Sakura-chan" before turning back to Sasuke as they talked animatedly.

Sakura then began to mentally run down her jutsus as Iruka and Mizuki took the roll call for afternoon classes. Apparently while the jutsu knowledge was present as she could picture each one, how much chakra they took, and how to implement them; the problem was she lacked almost all of the chakra capacity or the endurance. _Dammit! Just perfect! I'm back to square one; I'll need to retrain my body. That totally sucks, but at least this time I can get a jump on it. I'm also going to help Naruto surpass himself, which means teaching him the Rasengan before our team placements. Only problem is that it'll raise so many questions about how he learned it. The only ones who know it right now are Lord Jiraiya and Kakashi-sensei. I may have to give away something or use that mind transfer jutsu Ino-chan taught me before she died. I just hope I don't need to resort to that. As much as I want my Naruto-kun back and to have plow into me like a screen door during a typhoon, I love to get to know him again without all the undo pressure we had in our previous life._ She missed Inner Sakura's perverted giggle.

Sighing to herself, she looked at the syllabus that Iruka-sensei had given them for the final exams tomorrow; she groaned at the last test. She knew for a fact that the academy headmaster made the final test and it was he who designed the last stage specifically to prevent Naruto from ever passing. _Naruto only found out what happened after Iruka-sensei became headmaster._ She looked up in surprise as she heard a shout. The surprise didn't come just from the shout; but the fact that it was Shikamaru who shouted.

XXX

Shikamaru had left home much earlier than he normally would this morning, and with good reason too. It was his troublesome mother's time of the month, he and his father's personal waking nightmare. Over the years, Shikamaru had learned how to dodge his mom's troublesome mood swings, especially the ones that brought on the three d's: first there was the ear clincher of death, then the rolling pin of despair, finally the frying pan of **DOOOOOOOM**! His normal routine to avoid all troublesomeness in the mornings was to keep his room clean if his mom ever inspects it, brush his teeth before and after eating breakfast, put his bowl in the sink, shower, hang his towel to dry while putting his dirty clothes by the washer** (1)**, get dressed, tend the deer with his dad, and give his mother a kiss on the cheek before going to the Academy with Choji.

That routine was blown out of the water when she woke him up much earlier than his routine allowed, had him get dressed and head straight to the academy. She was shouting something about a mountain and paint and Naruto for some reason. It was too troublesome to dwell on so as soon as he got to the academy he took a nap at his seat by the window, only to wake up to see Sasuke and Ino make-out. He sighed after Iruka broke them up and turned towards the window to see the Hokage Monument… in full color. "What the hell happened to the monument?" Shikamaru broke off as he turned back to the class, paused when he saw Naruto and Sakura riddled with paint splotches matching the mountain. "Dammit Naruto, now you have infected Sakura-san with your troublesomeness too. First she wakes me up, now you have her pranking."

Mizuki glowered, "Damn brats." _Filthy demon and his whore_! Mizuki hid his expression of disgust while Iruka put a curious look onto his face.

"Still what did you have to prove by defacing the monument?"

Sakura answered first, "Iruka-sensei, Naruto and I may have been screwing around but we also pointed out how lax our security has been if two academy students wearing a shiny orange jumpsuit and red dress managed to paint the entire monument. What if instead of paint, they were paper bombs? I mean if we were enemy shinobi, we could have caused a lot of damage to the village by blowing up the monument and using the remains as a vantage point to fire jutsu left and right. While you all had huge boulders falling down on your heads."

Iruka blinked a few times Naruto was also looking at the pink haired girl in wonder, the Chunin coughed into his fist turning to Naruto, "You are right, so Sakura, Naruto, for your infiltration theory and tactics portion of the exam, I gladly give you an S rank and inform you that you don't need to take that portion of the exam."

"Really Iruka-sensei?" Naruto asked.

"Yes, however it doesn't excuse you from skipping class so as punishment everyone will review the substitution jutsu," Iruka stated everyone groaned some even glared coldly at Naruto. Sakura growled to herself she remember she had been just like them in her first life blaming Naruto for every screw up, while it was true in this particular instance and it was justified. She made a promise she would not let people treat her Naruto like garbage.

A few minutes later Naruto unveiled his Sexy jutsu blowing Iruka back with the mother of all nose bleeds. Fighting down the urge to bash her future husband in the head for that perverse jutsu, _Cha, I forgot he had that stupid pervert blasting Jutsu. Still Iruka-sensei shouldn't really put down a jutsu that can knock him flat on his ass_. She giggled watching Iruka try his hardest to beat some form of discipline into the blonde haired boy.

"Iruka-sensei, while the image is offensive, you can't deny that it had disabled you and others effectively. If this had been a battlefield situation, Naruto could have given all of the males and some of the females a bloody smile to match the bloody noses."

Iruka grumbled but conceded, "Fine, for your creative use of henge, you get full marks."

When the academy let out, all the kids could think about were Naruto and Sakura's rendition of the monument and Naruto's unique henge.

XXX The Next Day XXX

The exams were even easier for Sakura the second time around now that she knew what to expect. She passed everything she did but held back just enough so she could be place into squad seven, _Like it really mattered, Kakashi-sensei would have passed us anyway. Especially after Naruto-kun and I found out why we were assigned to his team. My aunt, Sasuke's uncle, and Naruto's father all were members of the previous team 7. _Sakura frowned a bit watching Naruto, while he had passed his infiltration and evasion exam with flying colors, his Taijutsu exam, put him at rank D mainly because Mizuki didn't hold back and Naruto's taijutsu was nothing more than that of a brawler, his Genjutsu detection and releasing skills didn't even get a rank as he sucked at it mostly because of his huge volume of chakra, as for his chakra capacity however also had been given a Kage rank. _He spent the entirety of his previous life just being able to detect Genjutsu much less cancel it and it eventually got him killed. _Sakura's eyes watered thinking about it. The last exam of the day was the basic ninjutsu. Yet this did not give Sakura any real source of comfort. Her future husband would not become proficient in Ninjutsu until that night. _Please be okay my Naruto-kun,_ she thought. Watching Naruto enter for his ninjutsu exam she had begun writing down the stages for the Rasengan using a minor Genjutsu to mask what she was doing as she made the final touches for later in the evening.

XXX

Sakura had entered Naruto's room and gently placed the scroll on his bed, she had mimicked Minato Namikaze's hand writing perfectly. It was something her husband had taught her in her previous life. She thought about giving him the scroll on the Hiraishin but she was already corrupting the time stream. A part of her didn't care if it meant corrupting the time stream she was going to make sure Naruto survived to live to old age this time, not dying trying to break out of a simple Genjutsu. _I will not lose my husband this time; we will not lose our little angels this time. We are going to grow old together, bask in our family, and make sure that idiot Sasuke never leaves this time even if we have to kill him. This I swear as my Nindo._

Sakura left, but not before she cleaned up Naruto's apartment and got rid of the spoiled milk. "To think if it hadn't been for this junk Naruto might have actually stolen my first kiss. Glad he did though, I would of thought it was Sasuke that I kissed and probably be even more obsessed with the emo-teme," the rosette haired girl snorted then smiled picking up one of Naruto's shirts holding it to her nose closing her eyes and gently taking in his scent. "Oh kami how I miss you, Naruto-kun," she whispered tears falling onto the shirt before she put it down. She left after a few minutes trying her hardest to recover from the sense of melancholy she was going through.

XXX

By mid-morning Naruto Uzumaki had returned after a night filled with both ups and downs, the upside he now had mastered a more advanced version of the clone jutsu, the Shadow Clone Jutsu. He also graduated after helping Iruka-sensei take down the no good lying traitor Mizuki. That had been one of the major downers of the previous night, _I never thought Mizuki hated me that badly, now I know why. The fourth Hokage sealed the nine-tailed inside me, why?_ It was confusing and the third hokage didn't give a good explanation for it when he asked. _Evaded the question and said I'd know when I became sixteen or Chunin whichever came first._ Growling in frustration he opened his apartment and found something he hadn't quite expected, his room had been straighten up and cleaned. _I've seen people ransack it before even set fire to it but clean?_ Rubbing his head in confusion he noted one of his shirts was out of place, he also noted a scroll sitting on his bed that hadn't been there the day before. He walked up and opened it looking at the contents not really caring if it had been a booby trap.

Inside he found directions for a jutsu he had never seen before, "Rasengan," he muttered aloud looking at the three diagrams, the first was showing a ninja holding a water balloon, looking closely at the diagram and smirked. "I can get this done before team placements," he noted a small note at the bottom of the scroll. "Use shadow clones to master chakra control, tree walking, water walking, and the leaf balance," the next set of diagrams showed what the note meant. "Oh yeah I got this."

Taking the scroll rolling it up he placed on the dresser then went to get changed grabbing the shirt he stopped looking down at the shirt feeling a damp spot. He felt the area of the damp spot and frown, "Not a water spot," he brought it to his nose and took a gentle sniff a very familiar smell tickled his nose, and only brought confusion to his mind. "Sakura-chan," he frowned a bit looking at it then glanced around the clean room again. _How did she know where my apartment was and why did she clean it for me, I thought she liked that teme Sasuke?_

With a mental shrug and a promise to find out later if the evidence was true or not, he quickly changed heading out to the training fields to master the jutsu he had been given. During the following week he had use the suggestion of using the shadow clones to master the tree walking and water walking exercises while going through the motions of learning the Rasengan. Outside of the third day Naruto had mastered the first stage of the Rasengan rotation, now he was working on force using a white rubber ball.

Not far from his location in another training field, Sakura was retraining her slowly building chakra reserves and stamina by doing the chakra control exercises she gave to Naruto. She was also retraining herself in the taijutsu she picked up from Tsunade and Naruto after he mastered his mother's taijutsu style. _This will cause questions later on but I don't care. I'll hold back until Naruto and I become chunin._ She dropped to her knees gasping for air after just three hours of work. "I use to be able to do this for almost half the day," she got a dirty grin on her face. "And sometimes the entire night with Naruto doing something else, but now I can barely make it till lunch without falling on my ass, starting from scratch completely sucks. But at least when I get enough of my chakra reserves high enough I can use the Shadow clone jutsu to speed things up," she said to herself.

During the day of ID photos Naruto simply appeared atop the Hokage tower dressed as is, too tired to create the kabuki paint idea he had in mind for the ID photos. He walked into the Hokage's office and deposited his photo which the Hokage looked at. Looking up from the photo he saw how tired Naruto looked. "Have you been getting enough sleep Naruto?"

"Oh yeah, I'm just squeezing as much training in as I can before team placements, old man," Naruto smiled.

Sarutobi blinked, "really what kind of training?"

"Chakra control exercises, and this really cool jutsu I found," the blonde shinobi thought a moment, "say old man you wouldn't happen to know a fire jutsu, wind jutsu, lightning jutsu, water jutsu, and an earth jutsu would you?"

Sarutobi's eyes widen a second, "Why would you need five different elemental jutsu?"

Naruto chuckled, "I found something really cool about the shadow clones that I wouldn't have figured out on my own. The person that left a scroll of this new jutsu I've been working on also told me about the knowledge transfer the clones give me. Right now they're working on my chakra control and the third stage of that jutsu."

_Third stage? He's working on a jutsu that has stages? Hmm interesting. He's also discovered the secret behind the shadow clones. The fact that his clones are working right now with the control exercises, very interesting maybe his control of the nine-tails will come that much sooner. However who gave him the hints and this mysterious jutsu? _Sarutobi pursed his lips and shot his eyes toward the door just as a small figure came running in holding a shrunken. Naruto glanced at the figure that unceremoniously crashed to the ground after tripping on his own feet. _Konohamaru… great just what I don't need._ He sighed watching as his grandson started accusing Naruto of tripping him just as Ebisu entered, _Looks like my grandson doesn't understand who he's dealing with this time_. After Naruto slugged the smaller boy he turned back to the Hokage.

"Well old man, do you have those jutsu's or not?" Naruto asked.

"I have a few fire based and earth based jutsu's you can try to master, I also have one or two Wind jutsu you might be able to tackle, some water jutsu as well, but lightning based jutsu's are extremely rare. Most lightning jutsu's are restricted to the Hidden Cloud village."

Naruto frowned, "Well darn I was hoping for a decent lightning jutsu."

"Why do you need so many jutsu Naruto," the old man asked sounding worried.

"Oh not so many just five one for each of those elements, it's something I'm cooking up," Naruto smiled giving the Hokage the nice guy pose which cause the old man to shudder.

"Very well I'll see what I can do, come in tomorrow before orientation and I'll have your scrolls."

"Your awesome old man," Naruto leapt over the desk and grabbed the old Hokage in a hug before taking off which made Konohamaru and Ebisu to look on in shock.

"Hey old man, what about me?" his grandson asked.

Sarutobi glanced at the boy, "maybe once you've graduated the academy and practice enough chakra control I'll help you with some jutsu as well."

"Really thanks grandpa," the reply shocked the old hokage. It had been nearly three years since his grandson had called him that.

XXX

Naruto whistled a bit then grimaced as he felt one of his clones dispel, with it however was the information he was waiting for. "Rasengan mastered," he muttered to himself. He tightened his hand into a fist then looked up and smiled uneasily. His beautiful pink haired vision of loveliness stood arms crossed a passive expression on her face having just come out of that Ino girl's flower shop. "Hey Sakura-chan, can I take you out on a date?" he asked cheerfully sure he knew that just a request will likely get him pounded into paste but he was feeling really lucky.

Sakura reached up rubbing her chin playing at thinking about it, "Do you have the money for it?"

Blinking a few times in confusion not sure if he heard it right, he opened up his Gama-chan. His monthly allowance had come in and because he had been training more than eating he had most of his money still. "Yeah, so does that mean you want to go out with me?" he asked in greater confusion.

Sakura was trying her hardest not to laugh out loud at his face which was mixture of panic and hope. _He just looks so funny when he's confused, in the five years after we married it's still his funniest expression_. She looked like she was thinking about it, "Alright I guess we could go out," she replied she heard a gasp behind her and turned to see Ino eyes wide and mouth agape.

"S-Sakura-chan? y-you're actually going to accept going out on a date with Naruto? The dobe?" Ino asked Sakura saw Naruto's face droop a bit.

"Yeah, so what," Sakura snorted her eyes flashing in anger. "Let me tell you what have I got for chasing after Sasuke, Ino, absolutely nothing but five years of cold shoulders, looks of indifference, or told to 'Go away,' and everything else. I took a really good look at myself a few days ago. You want to know what I hated myself as a person. I wasted my time tending to my looks for someone who wouldn't give a damn, while physically abusing the only boy who did, when I should have been focusing on my skills as a kunoichi of Konoha. I grew out my hair for the same boy only because I heard a rumor that he likes girls with longer hair. I looked into my closet that morning and found a shrine Ino. A shrine, to Sasuke Uchiha, that I am pretty sure had hair clippings and his blood," Sakura visibly shuddered remembering that tasteless object and treasuring the memory of pegging Ami in the head. "I tossed that shrine out the window and it nailed Ami in the head. I looked out the window and saw her carry it back to wherever the hell her house is, screaming something about Sasuke and gifts from above. I don't want to be that type of person Ino-pig. Being that kind of person made me do a stupid thing." Sakura's eyes teared up a little as she looked towards her best friend, "I broke up my friendship with my best friend; the same best friend who would build me right back up when bullies would break me down, the same best friend who gave me the strength I needed to stand on my own two feet so that those bullies would never get to me again. I broke up my friendship with her for a stupid reason; for that stupid insensitive teme." her eyes softened looking at Naruto. "I'm giving Naruto a chance, now."

"R-Really Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked looking at her in awe.

Sakura nodded, "I gave Sasuke more chances then I like to care about, I'm so over him it's not even funny."

Taking his hand and slowly leading him away from the flower shop Ino looked practically dumbfounded and a little uneasy at how close her pink haired rival came to the truth. _Wow it's like she hit an epiphany. _With a mental shrug Ino's face broke out into a starry eyed smile. "Well one less girl competing for Sasuke-kun's heart."

Author's Note: I made some changes to this fic after re-reading it, so beta readers are welcome for this one as well as any others I'm having trouble with.

**1: they have power-lines, TV's and indoor plumbing, why can't they have a washer and dryer?**


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The date such as it was had been short and sweet with Sakura dragging Naruto by the arm to one of her favorite sushi bars. It was an enlightening experience for our favorite knuckle head for two reasons. One it helped Naruto realize that not everyone was a ramen freak like him and two he found that different foods actually tastes pretty good. After the meal the two simply walked around the village talking. "Um, Naruto-kun did you pass the graduation exam this year?"

With a bright smile Naruto nodded, "You bet! Though Iruka-sensei said I'm not allowed to talk about it until after team placements," he sighed heavily.

"What have you been doing this past week then? You look a bit exhausted," Sakura pointed out.

The blonde haired boy shrugged, "Training, I figured I'd try and squeeze as much as I could before team placements," he then glanced at her. "Were you doing the same? You know, training?"

The rosette haired girl smiled weakly, "Yeah, being a fangirl does have its drawbacks, namely spending more time primping; and less time actually training the body. So I'm completely out of shape."

"I didn't even realize how bad my catra control was until this week," Naruto chuckled.

Sakura shook her head, "Naruto-kun you goofball. It's pronounced Chakra," she giggled watching him scratch the back of his head while chuckling nervously. "I'm sure you'll get better in time."

"Thanks Sakura-chan, you're the best," Naruto continued to scratch the back of his head looking up at the sky. "You think we'll be on a team together?"

With a light shrug the rosette haired kunoichi looped her arms around Naruto's right arm, "I hope so, I would like that." She noted Naruto's face had turned bright red and went deeper the moment she laid her head on his shoulder.

"Um, Sakura-chan? Are you okay?" he asked nervously.

She looks up at him and smiled, "Never been better," she sighed leading the pair toward her home. "I better get home, team placements are early," the two walked along the path leading to her home and at the front step she turned looking down towards him. _To think in three years he'll shoot past me in height, I'll be looking up at him._ She bent down partially and gave him a peck on the cheek. "See ya tomorrow morning Naruto-kun," she said turning and opening the door to her house. She turned towards him again, giving him a brief wave before slowly closing the door.

Naruto for his part was staring at the door looking dumbfounded. He looked up at a clock not far from where he was standing. He had spent four long hours out with the pink haired girl that since the age of seven he had been enamored with. Another precious person; maybe more precious than Iruka-sensei and the old man combined. _But will she accept me?_ He frowned a bit; walking away holding his stomach where the nine-tailed fox had been sealed inside him. _Will she accept if I tell her about the fox?_

XXX

The next morning Naruto finished his breakfast of Ramen and milk; he then dressed and left for the academy. He barely turned the corner when two figures entered his apartment, one being the Hokage looking around amazed at how clean it was. The second was a tall man with silver hair that stuck out and leaned off to his left a bit; he had one sharp black eye that was casually scanning the apartment. He too was amazed at the how clean it was. The old man produced four scrolls; the silver haired man glanced down at them. He was amazed at the names, Fire dragon jutsu, Water Fang Bullet jutsu, Mud Slide jutsu, and Wind Scythe jutsu. "What are those for Lord Hokage?"

"These are four of the five jutsu Naruto asked for. Normally I wouldn't give a genin straight out of the academy such high level Ninjutsu, however something I saw in Naruto's eyes," the hokage said a faint smile on his face.

"What kind of look?" the silver haired man asked.

Sarutobi chuckled, "The same kind Minato had before he and Kushina started developing a new seal or just before he began working on the Hiraishin. You've seen that look before Kakashi."

Kakashi Hatake let a low whistle as he looked around the apartment casually spotting another scroll sitting on the boy's dresser. This one was more worn than the others, opening it he scanned it and what he saw made his skin become placid and pale. "L-lord Hokage, what jutsu did Naruto say he was working on?"

Sarutobi frowned, "I don't think he mentioned it, just said it had stages why?"

The silver haired shinobi handed the old man the scroll, after a brief scan he looked up, "This handwriting is Minato's but I don't recall him ever writing down this jutsu."

"He didn't. He was afraid of someone with a power fetish like Danzo or Orochimaru obtaining it. He wrote down the Hiraishin and sealed it with a blood seal. Naruto would be the only one who could open it, that is if Jiraiya will ever give it to him," Kakashi replies.

"So Minato only taught you and Jiraiya how to perform this jutsu?" Sarutobi asked.

Kakashi nods frowning deeply under his mask, "I doubt Lord Jiraiya would go to the trouble of forging Minato-sensei's handwriting just to give it to Naruto. This all seems so strange."

"It's a mystery, for now just keep an eye on Naruto," Sarutobi stated rolling up the scroll and putting back where he found it. "Also if you somehow manage to acquire a lightning jutsu in the future, please teach Naruto the jutsu."

"I understand Lord Hokage. Actually, I have the perfect one for him. I will give him my Lightning Beast Running jutsu. I can only maintain one for long periods of time but I am sure Naruto will be able to use more. I'll write it up for him later. By your leave Lord Hokage" Kakashi stated pulling out his porn and leaping out of the room, Sarutobi set the four jutsu scrolls on Naruto's bed then leaves the apartment.

XXX

Having met Konohamaru on the way to class he sighed heavily_. I am a ninja now, I don't have time to play games with little kids, as fun as that would be. The time for games is over, ninja life starts now. Believe it!_ Naruto walked through the academy and into the classroom only to be greeted by Shikamaru. "Naruto what are you doing here?"

Naruto gestured to the headband, "Look Shikamaru, my brand new official Leaf Shinobi headband, I passed a makeup test the night after the exams."

Raising a single eyebrow Shikamaru gazed at the blonde skeptically, "Oh yeah how?"

"It is kind of difficult to explain. Mizuki turned traitor that night and tried to steal the Forbidden Scroll of Sealing," Naruto said. "I was training out in the woods when I spotted him and Iruka-sensei fighting. I helped out Iruka-sensei and he let me graduate for helping him."

"Troublesome," Shikamaru sighed walking to the back and sitting down.

"Exactly," Naruto sat down in the row in front of Shikamaru.

XXX

Sakura stood in front of her vanity mirror admiring her new outfit. Gone was the battle dress, replaced by an outfit that was similar to the one she wore as a Chunin. A red long sleeved shirt with her clan crest on the back as well as the Land of Fire insignia in the middle of her clan crest. She wore a beige short skirt, a hip pouch that held several salves for healing, and her green biker shorts underneath the skirt. She tied the headband like she had done before; she then tied her red hair ribbon around her arm. "Now this is the Sakura Haruno soon to be Uzumaki I remember," she smiled at the image. Even though her muscle tone wasn't showing yet, she looked far healthier than she did first time she looked in the mirror on this day. "Time to greet my Naruto-kun," she giggled winking at her reflection.

Leaving her home, she was walking down the street casually before she heard a gasp, "Okay first you start dating Naruto of all people, now you change your look. Who are you and where is Sakura Haruno?" Ino asked walking up to her.

"Sakura Haruno, Sasuke fangirl died five days ago, Sakura Haruno, the Kunoichi and Naruto's girlfriend was born in her place," the rosette stated glancing at Ino who looked dumbfounded. "I'm now taking my role as shinobi seriously, for the past week I've been working out building up my stamina trying to get stronger."

The blonde haired girl frowned. "Why the sudden change? I mean last week you were downright irate at Naruto for asking you out. Then in one day you pull a one eighty, you decide Sasuke-kun's not worth your time, not that I don't mind and I had a great time on my date by the way. You change your look, and you actually get serious with training."

"I told you before I had a change of heart Ino-chan, live with it. I also already told you I had hated who I was before. I like myself now, and I intend to stay this way from now on." Sakura scowled walking away not seeing Ino's downtrodden face. The two walked in silence until reaching the class room where Sakura's face lit up seeing the blonde haired boy, she ran over and slid in next to him, "Hi Naruto-kun! Ready for team placements?"

"Hiya Sakura-chan! Yep I am totally ready! Believe it! And I mastered a new jutsu yesterday before we went on our date," the boy chuckled before he felt several eyes on him; he turned and blinked in confusion at all the wide-eyed looks. "Um, Sakura-chan? Why is everyone staring?"

She looks up then around. Several people who hadn't known her change of heart were looking at her as if the world had started collapsing. Some were actually panicking looking out the window trying to see if the sky was falling. She rolled her eyes patting Naruto's hand. "Ignore them." She on the other hand did catch Hinata Hyuga looking at her; while not openly hostile the young heiress was giving her a cool look that best depicted her normally cold uptight clan_. Looks like Hinata and I are going to have a long chat later today._ A few minutes later Iruka appeared looking a bit worse for wear as he glanced at the students gathered.

Clearing his throat he noted the close proximity Naruto and Sakura were to each other; he also noticed Sakura's drastic change in look. He addressed his soon to be former students congratulating them on passing the exams. "Now you will be organized into three man squads and be given a jonin instructor, Squad 1," he listed the names for each squad, "Squad 7: Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno, and Sasuke Uchiha," he heard twin cheers follow then by two distinct groans ironically coming from the same cheers. _Okay that was just strange._ "Squad 8: Hinata Hyuga, Kiba Inuzuka, and Shino Aburame," he paused not hearing any real complaints, except from Ino about squad 7's placement. "Squad 10: Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, and Choji Akimichi."

One by one the squads were greeted by their Jonin sensei's until all those left sitting in the classroom were Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke. Becoming bored Sakura pulled out a notebook which she quickly cast a Genjutsu on so she could write down her plans for the near future. She was once again proficient in her chakra abilities and had enough chakra to summon at the very least two shadow clones without feeling the drain. These clones were right now at her training ground working on the chakra control exercises hopefully to increase her chakra. She glanced over at Naruto seeing him pacing about getting increasingly irritated at their Jonin-sensei. _Having already gone through this I already know what to expect, but I can remember getting just as annoyed as Naruto-kun is right now._ "Naruto-kun come here," she stated softly. Naruto sighed walking over and sitting down next to her, she watched him stutter step his leg anxiously. "You have to learn patience Naruto-kun, I'm sure the jonin is testing us."

Naruto took a couple of deep breaths before pulling out a leaf concentrating his chakra and began doing a control exercise. Ten minutes later Kakashi Hatake walked in and looked at them; gauging them with a critical eye, "Hmm, my first impression of you is… that some of you show promise. Now meet me on the roof." POOF!

"Well, he's weird," Naruto stated.

XXX

The trio met Kakashi a few minutes later sitting on a couple of stairs overlooking the village. "Why don't we all introduce ourselves? You know; your name, what you like and dislike, as well as a goal for the future. Oh! And hobbies too."

"Um, sensei why don't you lead that way we know how you want it done," the rosette spoke up.

"I'm Kakashi Hatake, My likes I don't really want to tell you, I don't like a lot of things. Dreams for the future, I have those. And I have lots of hobbies."

Naruto and Sakura sweat dropped, "All he really told us was his name," Sakura said under her breath.

"You, the one on the right; you can go first," Kakashi states.

The blonde haired boy smiled adjusting his headband. "My name is Naruto Uzumaki; I like Sakura-chan, ramen, and learning new jutsu. My hobbies are training and gardening. I hate people who put other people down, and traitors. My goal and dream is to become the next and best Hokage."

_Well this time he's not hung up on ramen that's a plus, but his introduction isn't so completely different. I just hope that's the only minor ripple in the time stream I've caused._ Sakura thought as Kakashi addressed her, Must not fangirl, "I'm Sakura Haruno, I like flower arranging and Naruto-kun, I hate traitors and people who can't tell the difference between a kunai and the scroll it's sealed in," she looked pointedly at Naruto giving a faint smile when she said the last part almost missing Kakashi's surprised look. "My hobbies are reading on medical books and reading in general. My goal is to become a world renowned Medic-nin surpassing Princess Tsunade."

Sasuke snorts at that but says nothing as Kakashi gestures to him, "I'm Sasuke Uchiha, I don't like a lot of things, I dislike many things. I have no hobbies worth mentioning. I have a goal that I will make a reality, I will restore my clan and kill a certain someone."

_What did I ever see in him? He's such an emo. Well this time, if he goes running off to Orochimaru again, I'm personally going bury a fist into his gut and destroy his visual cortex __**(1).**__ Where's your sharingan now bitch? Cha!_ Killing intent was coming off of her directed at Sasuke who paled for a second as Kakashi watched the exchange in silence. Sakura dropped the killing intent looking embarrassed and sheepish. "Yes sensei?"

"Tomorrow there will be a survival test, bring stuff for a full mission," Kakashi turned away for a moment then looked back at them. "Another thing, don't eat breakfast or you'll throw up." With that last declaration Kakashi vanished using the shunshin jutsu. Sasuke got up and left leaving the young couple to themselves.

"So what you want to do Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked.

Sakura smiled slightly taking his hand, "Lunch at my house, I want to introduce you to my mom."

"Will that be okay?" the blonde boy looked a bit uneasy and she knew the reason, many adults in the village treated him badly for something that was out of his control. But her mom had always kept an open mind. Something she was thankful for before the jump.

The rosette haired girl however would not be deterred pushing him from behind, "Don't worry I know you're not the fox, Naruto-kun."

"H-How did you know that? Isn't it like an S-class secret?" Naruto asked completely shocked and totally panicky. Sakura quickly pulled his head up to look her in the eyes, nuzzling his nose with hers which caused him get a full body blush.

"I figured it out on my own silly," she whispered. "Your birthday falls on the same day the nine-tailed fox was attacking the village. People around you hate or are afraid of you, they treat you like your invisible on good days; on bad they try to kill you," she watched the real Naruto revealed himself behind the fake smile, the one that held so much pain. This was the Naruto that won her heart, this one she wanted to help cultivate. This one would become strongest Hokage ever. "I don't care. You're not Kyuubi the great and terrible, you're Naruto-kun the unpredictable, hyperactive, knucklehead ninja; the Naruto-kun that makes a promise and does his best to keep it." _The Naruto-kun I love more than life itself,_ she thought to herself.

She watched as the pain in his eyes lessened. Now a repairman knows when a job is done, but an artist can tell how to make it a masterpiece. She reaches up cupping both his cheeks, gently running her thumbs over his whisker marks_. This might be jumping the gun just a bit, but he needs to know I'm going to be here for him; that we are a team and we'll face the entire world together._ Leaning down Sakura captures Naruto's lips in a tender soft kiss. After they parted, Sakura took his hand and led him down the stairway out of the academy heading toward her home.

XXX

In the Hokage office, Sarutobi watched the exchange worried at first that the girl knew Naruto had the nine-tailed fox sealed inside him, but as the exchange went on he put those worries to rest. He found it odd the girl would make such a sudden shift from Sasuke to Naruto. But for whatever reason the girl was doing something he himself had failed to do, she was healing the boy's heart. _Maybe I should bring Tsunade back to the village to train this girl in medical jutsu. If she can heal Naruto's heart with just a few words, makes me wonder what she could do with actual training._ Pulling out a blank scroll he began to write, he planned on bringing Jiraiya home to find out who gave Naruto the Rasengan scroll now he had another reason.

Author's Note: This go a bit slower than the others and I am looking for editor's and beta readers.

** 1. The visual cortex is part of the occipital lobe of the brain. Damage to it causes damage to the eye sight. If it is severed, kiss your sight goodbye. No more monkey marbles Sasuke! Signed cmcwiki**


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Both lunch and later dinner to Naruto had been a rather surprising affair; Sakura's mother didn't give him that cold calculating stare most of the other villagers have done in the past. Mrs. Haruno had been warm and happy to meet him, even going so far as to approve of him dating Sakura.

_**Flashback:**_

Sakura practically dragged Naruto along until they were standing on the front steps to her house. Opening the door the rosette haired girl led him into the house her smile sly. "Mom, I'm home and I brought a guest for lunch and dinner."

Mrs. Haruno stepped out of the kitchen a faint look of interest on her face only to be replaced by a smile upon seeing the whiskered marked blonde. "Well you finally brought him to see me," the canary blonde haired woman stated walking up and bending down examining him. _Let's see… he looks so much like his father,_ Naruto's face got both uncomfortable and confused at the close scrutiny. The lady giggled a bit watching the facial expressions change, _Hehehehe, has his mother's expressive face and eyes._ With the last giggle she went back to her full height and glanced at her daughter for a second she notice the unwavering look of adoration on her daughter's face she then turned back to the boy and smirked. "I've only got one thing to say young man, if you hurt my daughter I'll string you up by your balls with metal ninja wire."

Naruto gulped instinctively closing his legs closer together, "Never Mrs. Haruno, Sakura-chan is like my most precious person in the world."

"S-Sakura-chan," Mrs. Haruno's giggles covering her mouth with her hand, "that's so sweet and precious," Sakura blushed heavily, she remembered the first time this happened. Her mother would never let her live it down. "Well make yourself comfortable Naruto-kun," she entered the kitchen and brought out three sub-sandwiches. "Here's lunch, dinner will be ready in about four hours. No hanky panky while I'm cooking please."

"M-Mom!" the rosette haired girl looked scandalized while Naruto's face was dark red. They both picked up their sandwiches and ate in companionable silence, both waiting for dinner to finish.

It was during this time Naruto noticed a picture on the fireplace mantle. Getting up, he walked over to it and was surprised to see a younger Kakashi standing next to a girl with brown hair and purple marks on her cheeks. Next to the girl was a black haired boy wearing a pair of goggles similar in design as the ones he used to wear. It was the one who stood behind the trio of kids however that drew Naruto's attention. "Hey Sakura-chan, why do you have a picture of two kids standing next to Kakashi-sensei and the Fourth Hokage?"

Sakura walked up and smiled serenely. In her first life, she had passed by this photo so many times that she never _really_ looked at it until she put the picture of her and Naruto's fifteen-year-old selves next to it. She had been just as interested as Naruto had been and totally surprised when she found out the reason behind this photo.

"That was the squad 7 before us Naruto, led by Minato Namikaze who eventually became the fourth Hokage. The other two in the picture are Obito Uchiha and my aunt Rin Haruno," Sakura explained.

"Wow, really that's so cool Sakura-chan," Naruto smiled fondly.

"I never met my aunt; she vanished the night of nine-tails attack. My mom believes that after witnessing the death her sensei and his wife, she just couldn't stand to be around the village; she lost so much during the war," the rosette haired girl stated sadly, _We later find her dying of an illness she contracted when some missing-nin attacked and raped her. If I remember that happens a year from now when she was living in the Land of Waves. We missed her during our mission there maybe Naruto-kun and I can bring her back_. "Some in the village believe she was killed by the nine tails and we should be blaming you for her death." Naruto looked at her with haunted eyes; she simply leaned forward kissing him on one of the sweet spots she found when they dated before the time leap, namely the middle whisker of his right cheek.

Mrs. Haruno snorted as she was coming in setting the table, "Like I'll believe those idiots over Minato-kun's skills," a fire in her eyes.

Raising a blonde eyebrow Naruto looked towards Sakura; she giggled and mouthed 'fangirl'. This caused the blonde haired boy to roll his eyes, and was surprised when he felt the seal on his stomach shudder.

The dinner was a fun affair. Naruto entertained Sakura and her mom with his tales of his most extravagant pranks, and outwitting the chunin of the village as he fled following a successful prank.

"Though I do find it strange that Iruka-sensei is always able to find me when I hide," Naruto grumbled in good humor.

Sakura however was able to shed a light on that mystery, "Naruto-kun, out of all of the chunin in the village, Iruka-sensei has spent the most time around you. While I doubt he is a strong sensor, all that time around you he must recognize your chakra signature," Sakura started giggling, "it is probably your fault for getting so many detentions that he is able to track you down so easily."

Naruto started whining morosely and lowered his head, "Sakura-cha-a-a-a-an is so mean to me," but the silly grin on his face showed he wasn't really hurt by the insinuation making the Haruno matriarch giggle at his expense. _But still, that does make sense. It would explain how Iruka-sensei found me before Mizuki-sen… no Mizuki-teme did. I hope that bastard drops the soap. He was going to betray Konoha, kill me, Iruka, and reveal our secrets, whatever hell that awaits is too good for him._

Mrs. Haruno loved the playful interaction between the children but needed to get her fun in too, "You two are so cute together. Any plans for the future?" the genin pair stared owlishly at her before releasing twin scandalized screams.

XXX

After dinner they all went into the den to watch the Devil May Cry Saga **(yes I turned the games into one big movie, in order of 3, 1, 4, 2)**. Sakura found it frightening that Naruto was so similar to Nero and Dante, while Sasuke seemed to emulate Vergil. After the movie was over, Naruto made to leave. Right as he headed out the door, Sakura kissed him on the cheek. His grin was glued onto his face all the way home.

_**End Flashback**_

It had been a rather strange, yet wonderful turn around over the last week. While not a great judge of character, which his run in with Mizuki could attest, he was good at it. He also was a bit surprised at Sakura's new look, gone was the girly battle dress which he felt hid her figure. He spotted details in her eyes he hadn't seen before, one they looked like she had seen a lot more than she let on, two just by looking at her beautiful jade orbs that showed she was no longer a Sasuke-teme fangirl. Lastly they held such strength and iron will, he felt like saw them before in some distant dream. Only in the dream they weren't jade green, more like an emerald green and the pink hair seem to change into a darker red. Shaking himself out of his thoughts mainly because they were getting too deep for him; he smiled gently, rubbing his cheek on the spot where Sakura had kissed it after he left. He found it odd how Sakura knew just where to kiss him._ It's almost like she knows that it feels nice._

Entering his apartment, Naruto found the four jutsu scrolls; both frowning and smiling at them. Sure he wouldn't be able to study them this morning, but he figured after the training exercise and possibly any missions he could get started on them. The blonde shinobi was actually not looking forward to sleeping; in the last week his dreams had been highly unreliable, at least in terms on how good a night of sleep he got. Some of the dreams were of him and his current team as they are now, then they would flux into dreams of him as a teenager, then an adult, and back. Most were fairly benign while others had been downright painful.

In the dreams Sakura never accepted his attempts at dates and bashed him like she had done the previous five years. Also in the dream they had their team introductions go radically different, he obsessed over ramen, Sakura went all fangirly and shouted she hated him; only Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei stay pretty much the same. Frowning a bit, the dreams got fuzzy at certain points almost like someone was blocking the picture with a Genjutsu. _Why is this weird stuff happening? It's these dreams that gave me the idea for the jutsu's I wanted._ He had seen himself as an adult in these dreams performing those four jutsu in an orange coat with black flames; it was and still is confusing. The dreams all started the day after he had his first date with Sakura. Naruto scratched at his head in frustration at all the deep thinking he was currently doing, _Gah! I'm not the old man all this thinking is making my head hurt. With the shadow clones, the Rasengan, and those four jutsu, possibly five, I'll rock. Plus for what I got planned, it's so totally going to blow everyone's mind!_ With a dark chuckle Naruto sat down and began getting ready for both bed as well as the survival test in the morning.

XXX

Sakura however wasn't resting right now, she was about to confront the Hyuga heiress as the girl was leaving a restaurant with her sensei. The rosette haired girl had no illusions this was going to be pleasant. At every stage of Hinata's life, she had been a devout supporter of Naruto's. Standing silently, watching the Hyuga for a moment until Kurenai and Hinata were close she made herself known, "Hinata-san."

Hinata looked up at her eyes trying to look stern but failed, "Sakura-san, w-what do you want?"

"To talk, about Naruto-kun," the rosette replied. "Also about why after six years of knowing him you couldn't step forward and be there for him."

Hinata's eyes flashed a second before they dulled, "W-what do you mean?"

Sakura snorted, "Please, Naruto might be dense but not the rest of us," her mouth turned up a bit at her own comment, "It's after all, one of his most endearing traits as well as his most frustrating. What I mean is everyone in our class knew you've had a major crush on him."

Hinata's faced turned red a moment she brought her fingers up pushing together fidgeting. "I only started liking him a few months ago," Sakura explained.

Hinata looked up at the rosette haired girl, her eyes hardened, "You certainly hid it well Sakura-san, up until last week you treated him like something you found under your shoe."

Sakura winced mentally, she remembered the things she had done to Naruto and to hear Hinata speak of her past without stuttering or sounding timid reinforced that fact. "I know and if I have to, I will spend the rest of my life making it up to him. What about you? You had six years maybe more; you could have stepped forward and been there for him, instead you hid in the shadows watching while the rest of us treated him like garbage. My mom gave me some advice that she got from my Aunt once. 'Those who don't follow the rules are trash, those who don't help their comrades or friends are worse than trash'."

"W-who was your Aunt?" Hinata asked this sparked Kurenai's interest as well.

A small smile graced the rosette's features, "her name was Rin Haruno."

Kurenai looked thoughtful trying to remember the name while Hinata looked down at her feet, hearing Sakura's words again in her mind made her heart sink. "Y-You're right I couldn't find the courage to talk to Naruto-kun, or offer him comfort. I-I just admired him so much. I had hoped that someday I would gather my courage and tell him."

"You are a very kindhearted and friendly person Hinata-san, even I can see that," Sakura smiled softly. "Which makes what I'm about to say harder for me. You can be his friend, you can cheer for him, but aside from that you stay away from him," with that she turned and began walking away, she stopped and glanced over her shoulder to see Hinata fighting the tears threatening to burst from her eyes. "Otherwise Hyuga or not, gentle fist or not, I'll bust you up, he's mine and I'm his." She had to tune out Hinata's sniffles, her heart felt tight at what she had done. While she wasn't sure if the warning would go heeded or not, she felt that she had firmly staked her claim. _In this competition you can't be faint of heart Hinata, you actually led in the polls because I was too far up the Uchiha's ass last time, but this time around I'm surging ahead, CHA!_

XXX

Team seven minus their sensei met at training ground seven near memorial stone; Sakura and Naruto were half asleep mainly because both had rough nights. Naruto had a particularly nasty dream about this very event. Though it looked really fuzzy, he saw in one particular moment in the dream, Kakashi-sensei jabbed his two index fingers up the blonde's sphincter. Naruto released a shudder at the memory. That had actually been the lighter part of the dream, the next fuzzy part showed him and Sasuke fighting some guy with a huge sword. After that night he didn't care how exhausted he was, he sent two shadow clones to training ground eighteen with the fire jutsu and one with the wind jutsu. Sakura's night wasn't much better; dreaming again of Naruto's and their children's death. Just seeing Naruto put her mind at ease; she pulled out three apples as they converged.

She tossed one apple to Naruto who looked at it, "Um, Sakura-chan, Kakashi-sensei told us not to eat or we'll hurl." He had just become a genin; he didn't want to do anything that would screw his chances of becoming Hokage.

With a snort she looks around, "Please, if yesterday was any indication we'll probably be out here awhile before that lazy guy shows up," she bit into her apple chewing on the tart fruit.

Naruto just shrugged and bit into his own apple glancing at Sasuke, who after a few minutes consideration extended his hand where Sakura promptly put the last apple into his hand. The trio ate in silence with the rosette haired girl leaning up against the blonde haired boy while the Uchiha stood a bit off to the side, arms crossed and eyes closed. "Ne Sasuke! Who do you want to kill?" Naruto asked which actually surprised Sakura. Originally Naruto never even asked this question until much later when it was far too late to save their teammate from his dark path.

Sasuke looked at Naruto with an eyebrow raised actually surprised someone didn't know. "My brother Itachi Uchiha, he destroyed my clan in a single night to test his power, placed me in a Genjutsu and left saying I was too worthless to kill. Before he did he told me _'Foolish little brother, if you wish to kill me, hate me, detest me. And yet survive in an unsightly way. Run, run and cling to life, and when you have the same eyes as mine, come to me.'_ When I recovered I swore to avenge my clan and kill him."

Naruto blinked a few times and frowned, for a second Sakura could almost swear she was looking at her Naruto. "That doesn't make sense. I knew Itachi, and he was never power hungry or imbalanced. He used to talk to me about how he strived for a world without war, a world without hatred. Furthermore, while Itachi was powerful, he isn't strong enough to take down an entire clan of Sharingan users, at least not by himself."

Sasuke blinked then narrowed his eyes at Naruto his usually neutral face turned into a frown, "How do you know my brother?"

Naruto's eyes dulled for a second as if bringing up a suppressed memory, "When I was four, a group villager's were beating on me and an ANBU wearing a weasel mask came to the rescue. He was one of three ANBU that were assigned by the old man to protect me."

The Uchiha turned towards Naruto looking even more confused, "Why would the Hokage assign three ANBU to protect you?" _It doesn't make sense. If anyone would need protection it would be me._ Sasuke's thoughts were not unfounded. He was the last of his clan still loyal to Konoha, and possible carrier of the sharingan bloodline. He was surprised that no one came after him to finish what _he_ started.

After a few seconds Naruto looked down and clutched at his stomach remembering the words Mizuki spat at him a week ago. _**Naruto, you are the Nine-tailed Fox!**_

As Sakura gently touched his shoulder, he looked up at her and saw her warm smile, "If you can swear on your honor as a shinobi you won't reveal what I tell you, and then you'll understand."

In the trees Kakashi looked on wide eyed, he had seriously misjudged his sensei's son, having figured he inherited more of Kushina's personality than his senseis. He sighed as Naruto retold the tale of the sealing that the Hokage had told the boy in the tower after Mizuki's betrayal. _However none of us truly know the reason behind that tragic event. The only two witnesses are both dead, Minato-sensei what happened that day?_ This question had plagued the one-eyed Jonin for the last eleven years the same could be said about Rin's disappearance. Her name had been put down as missing and presumed dead until there was a body to be found or evidence that she survived. He prayed that she survived somehow if for anything peace of mind. _I should just pass them now. With Naruto-kun pretty much giving Sasuke-kun a double S class secret, that trust should ensure strong teamwork, plus Naruto-kun and Sakura-chan's relationship practically screams they'll make a good team. But I better be safe than sorry, Sakura-chan already made things more difficult. Plus it is a team tradition passed down from sensei to student; I can't just let them off easy. _

In the clearing, the members of team seven thought they heard evil laughter but brushed it off as the wind blowing through the leaves.

XXX

A few seconds after Naruto finished his explanation of the events, Sasuke looked a bit unnerved. He hadn't expected something that horrific to happen in Naruto's life. _I thought his life was only tough because he was an orphan but now it all makes sense._ Taking time to digest the information he was given, Sasuke nodded to the blonde and crossed his arms. No sooner had he finished, Kakashi appeared in a puff of smoke holding up his hand.

"Sorry I was late, I got lost on the road of life," Kakashi stated with an eye smile.

"LIAR!" both Sakura and Naruto shouted shaking their fists in his general direction. He chuckled mentally; he remembered Rin and Obito had done the same thing to their sensei. Many would not think Minato Namikaze would be chronically late, but many never knew that he had a beautiful woman that often prevented him from being on time. Of course Obito followed his example as the black sheep of the Uchiha clan, but that is another story.

"Anyway," Kakashi began to tell them the details of their so called training and showed them the bells. (I'm not going into details of the infamous bell test; those who are reading this fic have gone through this song and dance a hundred times already.) Tying the bells to his belt loop he ordered them to start. He watched all three vanish from the field; well, two vanished one was dragged away. _I have feeling I'm seeing another Minato and Kushina relationship, only done in reverse_.

"Sakura-chan," Naruto whined. He wanted to start kicking Kakashi's ass for being late.

"Listen Naruto-kun I knew what you were planning," Sakura stated in a whisper as they crouched down. "You were going charge at him in a frontal assault."

With a frown Naruto nodded, "Aren't we suppose to get one of those bells?"

"Look underneath the underneath, Naruto-kun," Sakura replied. "The bells are a distraction. We're really suppose to work as a team, no single genin can take a Jonin,"

Naruto interrupted her with a grin, "But Sakura-chan, we aren't single."

Sakura blushed and lightly slapped him on the arm, "that is not what I mean Baka and you know it."

The rosette stated watching Kakashi who pulled out his porn and began reading. She looked at her whisker marked boyfriend and saw the frown on his face. She leaned over and gave him a gentle kiss on his cheek. "It's noble of you to want to fight sensei head on, but it would be suicide."

_What is she talking about? He has one eye, and he is using that for his book. Plus he looks like he just got out of bed. So what is the problem?_ Naruto frowned. _But Sakura-chan said to look, underneath the underneath. Why is his headband over his eye instead of an eye patch? That headband over his eye, could he be hiding something? He is also a Jonin, he should be able to shake off any disorientation in a few seconds. And as a Jonin, he should be able to multitask. Could his lazy posture and book be a way to make us underestimate him? What should I do? _After a few minutes of thought Naruto finally nodded and sighed, "So how do we fight him?"

"First we find his weakness," she pointed at the book in his hand. "That book is part of the Icha-Icha Paradise series, basically its erotica, written porn."

Naruto's frown returned, there were two things he hated the most traitors and perverts, "I don't care if he does outclass me, I'll kill him."

The rosette giggled, "Its okay silly," she rubs the tip of her chin thinking the first time they did this test. The majority of her time was spent chasing after Sasuke or Kakashi having put her in a Genjutsu. After his initial bout with Kakashi, Naruto spent most of his time up a tree. _If this was six years from now the three of us could take Kakashi-sensei, heck Naruto-kun and I did take him. But at this stage none of us are strong enough._ She looked at Naruto; he was in a full body stutter-step eager to do something, his muscles showing through his jumpsuit. She blushed a bit as she remembered one particular night she had been at the hospital in her old life. Years down the road, that stutter step ended up with them having sex in her office which in turn ended up with her getting pregnant. "N-Naruto-kun stop doing that," she stutter her words realizing she was getting turned on. _Damn it, he has no idea how excited I get when he does that._ It took all her willpower not to jump him, pin him down and show him how to please her. _No, must not jump him, _she looked at him again and concealed some drool_, but all that energy is going to waste._

From his spot leaning against the tree, Kakashi looked up from his book sensing one of his student's chakra fluctuating. _It's not Naruto or Sasuke; I wonder what's causing Sakura-chan's chakra to flux._

It took everything in Sakura's self-control to calm down and think of something other than making Naruto a man before he was ready. "Okay Naruto-kun, this is how we will do this; hopefully Sasuke will pick up on it too." Naruto listened as Sakura explained the details on how they were going to get the bells, he smiled at one point. He was also blushing; it seemed every tenth word out of the rosette haired girl was kissing his earlobe. When they finished discussing the plan they leapt to their feet.

XXX

Kakashi looked up as six Naruto's charged at him from the undergrowth; he shook his head with a sigh. After a second he frowned, knocking several away. The last one falling to the ground, "You're not very bright are you?" he said only to receive a smile from the boy.

Going through several hand signs Naruto brought his hands back, "Wind Style: Wind Scythe Jutsu!" he brought his arms around crossing his arms in front of his body in an X. Two blades of wind were sent toward the silver haired Jonin.

Said Jonin's visible eye widened, leaping over the jutsu in midair; the pink haired genin suddenly appeared behind him, her eyes glittering in mischief before reaching down to make a grab at the bells. Unable to shift himself, he grabbed Sakura's hand and used an overhand toss to throw her to the ground. However before she could hit the ground, Naruto appeared catching her bridal style. Setting her to the ground, he extended his hand outward. Kakashi's visible eye widened recognizing the stance. _It can't be! Rasengan?_

"Naruto," Sakura said softly holding up two bells, Kakashi blinking looking down spotting that the bells were indeed missing. Naruto looked at her and smiled, "Well Kakashi-sensei, bell's taken," she tosses the blonde one of the bells, who snickered. Both waited as Sasuke appeared. Sakura then tossed her bell to the Uchiha. Immediately after, Naruto made two shadow clones and transformed them into bells tossing each into the hands of Sakura and Kakashi, "Is this what you wanted sensei?"

The silver haired Jonin blinked and smiled underneath his mask as he watched Sasuke look at his bell in confusion, Naruto and Sakura both holding the other. The rosette haired girl slid in as close to the blonde as she could while nuzzling his cheek with her nose as she moaned softly, this caused the silver haired pervert to launch into the air blood streaming somehow through his mask. Meanwhile Naruto was trying to keep himself from breaking out into a full body blush. But once their sensei blew back from his nose bleed she stopped, "That's for being late you pervert."

Naruto caught on to what she did both feeling good at the attention but also the prank his girlfriend just pulled, "Good one, Sakura-chan."

"Why thank you Naruto," she kisses his cheek as Kakashi slowly to recover only to catch the kiss and pass out again. "Oh get over yourself, sensei. Do we pass or not?"

The silver haired man slowly sat up, "Yes, you completely understood the true concept of this test, though in a unique way," _But that is just you Naruto, you really are the_ _number one hyperactive, knucklehead ninja._ Kakashi smiled standing up. "So we'll start missions tomorrow, you can take the rest of the day off." With that said, Kakashi vanished in a shunshin leaving the three genin alone. Sasuke walked off, leaving the young couple by themselves.

Sakura turned to the whisker marked blonde, "So wanna go have lunch with me?"

"Never need to ask Sakura-chan," Naruto smiled taking her hand the duo left the training ground.

Sakura felt flushed as they walked to Naruto's favorite eatery. _Well thanks to what Naruto-kun did during the test I'm all worked up. I have two choices when I get home cold shower or my fingers._ After a few minutes thinking about it she was going to have to cast the silencing jutsu on her room, cold showers had never worked just thinking about her husband being so energetic got her hot and bothered.

Author's Note: Well this is the modified version of the bell test for this story and the ripples of change are already beginning to show. For those that think that Naruto's going to be godlike invincible he ain't, he's just going to be stronger and more knowledgeable. This is going to be a Naruto/Sakura coupling no harem. Also Hinata will not turn into a bitch. I hate Hinata bashing, just because I don't like her paired with Naruto doesn't mean I don't like her, she's a very sweet girl.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Jiraiya was crouched in a mass of bushes surprisingly not doing what he would call research. Instead he was looking for a discolored bush indicating a hidden message from one of his many informants. Finally spotting the particular bush he pulled it up revealing a small missive. Opening the missive he found in code information that was becoming more disturbing each time he read it. _More news on this Akatsuki group, I don't like the pattern I'm seeing._ For the last few months he had been getting reports on the Akatsuki when he wanted information on Orochimaru. But the long standing orders from him involving possible threats to Jinnchuriki, was also noted. He feared someone would go after his godson because of the boy's tenant. Missives on Orochimaru had placed him in the Rice country creating his own hidden village. But the information on the Akatsuki going after Jinnchuriki worried him, five of the nine known tailed-beast had mysteriously vanished, the three, six, seven, five, and four. That left the One, Two, Eight, and Nine tailed beasts left, Naruto had the nine, Gaara of the Hidden Sand Village had the one tailed. He suspected that the Hidden Cloud had the other two; he was going to head in that direction to discover their identities. He used a fire jutsu to destroy the missive stretching and cracking his neck looking around. _Minato did say his sister moved to the Hidden Cloud Village to live with her husband and his family. They even promised to keep their family line a secret, what was the family name now, Nii._ Jiraiya carefully placed the bush back and stepped out of the grove only to be greeted by messenger hawk from the Hidden Leaf. _I wonder what's up sensei rarely sends out a message to me unless it's really important. _Opening the scroll and began reading,

_**Jiraiya,**_

_** There is an unusual situation brewing here in the village, Naruto has been given a scroll written in his father's handwriting detailing the Rasengan. He has mastered the jutsu already; however we would like you to investigate who created the scroll. Also I would like you to find Tsunade and bring her home, to train a young girl who has been showing interest in our favorite knucklehead. This girl happens to be a certain pink haired girl that Naruto has shown interest of in the past. If you have anything else to put in please relay to me at a moment's notice.**_

_** 3**__**rd**__** Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi**_

Jiraiya pursed his lips reading then re-reading the message, groaning a bit at the possibility of having to locate Tsunade and bring her back to the village. _This is going to be pleasant, Tsunade not only will resent the very idea of returning home she might actually fight me over it. If I get into trouble I can always bring that up, Kushina would forgive me about it if she was alive, _he paused thinking about it before wincing. _After she kicked my manhood into my throat_. With that in mind he silently made his way toward the last destination his spies had spotted Tsunade. Sure it was a few weeks old but he was certain once he found her last destination he would be able to track her from that point.

XXX

Sakura Haruno stood in a tree watching her target her plan was to wait for her target to tire out before she went in for the kill. True this particular target had the stamina of a god and it could take well into the day, but she was patient. The aspect of achieving her mission was what was challenging; she watched the way the target moved biting her lip to keep a moan at bay as her target removed his jacket leaving him clad in only his black t-shirt which was stuck to his body. _How the hell could I missed what was hidden underneath that god awful orange jumpsuit. _After all she had felt his upper body on more than one occasion. The first time she had been unconscious when she had been knocked out by those Rain ninja during their first team mission after the Chunin exams. The second time had been when she, Naruto, and Lord Jiraiya had investigated one of Orochimaru's hideouts. The amount of booby traps they boobied into was laughable. Each time Naruto had rescued her at risk to himself, nearly getting killed three times. The times he saved her life on that mission were so numerous; it had sown the first seeds of love that would grow within her.

She came out of her reflective thoughts watching as her target finally collapse briefly in exhaustion, her time was now. She leapt out of her cover and dropping to the ground slowly stocking toward her target, once she was behind she leaned down wrapping her arms around his waist sighing in contentment. "You could have waited for me, no fair training without me."

"Sorry Sakura-chan," Naruto said slowly standing up which was made harder by the fact Sakura was still hanging on him. The rosette shifted her weight so she could slide herself around her whisker marked love while still being able to hold him. The blonde found himself looking partially up into her eyes noting how warm and inviting they were. "Um, aren't we going to train?"

"In a moment," Sakura murmured burying her face into his shoulder taking in his scent which was mixture of sweat and ramen. It was this scent that brought about a lot of memories for her. Memories of her spending several Christmases making pancakes for her family, sitting on Naruto's lap as they watched Minato and Kushina tear into their presents with gusto, while little Jiraiya and his twin Nagato played with the wrappings. Memories of every anniversary she and Naruto had every morning of those anniversaries her beloved husband would bring her breakfast in bed. More and more images of her past life seemed to bombard her at one moment tears falling from her eyes. "N-Naruto-kun," she whimpered.

Dread rose in the boy's heart hearing Sakura cry into his shoulder, "Sakura-chan are you okay?" he asked fearfully.

She leaned back looking down at him tears rolling down her cheeks, she reaches up to wipe them away only for Naruto do it instead. _It's moments like these that I see my Naruto coming through_. She smiled sadly, "I'm okay Naruto-kun," she wanted to say more she was glad that his eyes were showing he didn't believe her. "Had a lot of nightmares recently," she finally states.

"About what, Iruka-sensei told me plenty of times, if you have a bad dream it's good idea to talk to someone about them," Naruto suggested.

The rosette haired girl at the moment wanted to killed her former sensei and at the same time embrace the man. Kill him for giving advice that would cover up her inability to keep her grief from impacting this timeline, while she wanted to embrace him for giving her beloved such sage advice. She decided to hide the truth in plain sight, "The nightmare show us first as we are now, only not together I was still the Uchiha fangirl, it was a dream filled with nothing but regret, happiness in the middle, and great tragedy at the end. I-I lost you," Sakura said dropping her head to the ground. _I lost my beloved husband, my children, and my village in less than a month._ "I won't let my dream come true," she said looking at her future husband.

Naruto smiled, "And I'll help you, Sakura-chan that will be my promise of a lifetime," he stated giving her the same thumbs he gave her that first time he made a different promise one that would end in losing his life.

Sakura laid her head back on his shoulder, "And I promise that I'll always be at your side until were both old and gray, that will be my promise of a lifetime," she said softly feeling his arms slide around her waist. After a few quiet moments she felt Naruto to shift from one foot to the other, his energy was building. She stepped back noting her future husband was getting jittery with renewed energy. It was this sight that she had seen on numerous occasions. It wouldn't be until after they started dating in her first timeline that she could get him to waste that energy in the form of horizontal stamina training. _We better get started before he goes into the stutter step movement, or my fingers will be sore tomorrow._ She gently broke out of his embrace rather reluctantly taking a few steps backward and dropping into a combat stance. "Okay Naruto-kun let's start off with some taijutsu practice."

XXX

Jiraiya found himself moving through a small gambling village called Waterfall Degas, while small had one of the largest Casino halls in the Land of Fire. This of course had been the most ideal spot for Tsunade without a doubt to rack up a large debt. He could only imagine the level Ryo the woman could have lost. _She's beautiful, fiery, but has the worst luck in the entire Elemental Nations, and Kushina was the exact opposite, that firecracker had the devils luck when it came to everything. I hear Naruto is the same way, _the perverted sage chuckled to himself remembering shortly after Minato and Kushina began their long courtship the fiery redhead challenged Tsunade to a game of five card draw and beat her repeatedly. Each time Kushina won a hand be it a Full house, Four of a Kind, or a flush Tsunade was never able to beat the young girl. _Princess challenged the girl to one more hand and let Kushina name the stipulation. _

XX Flashback XX

"Alright, you little brat," Tsunade snarled watching the cute red head giggled. "Last hand and you name the stipulations."

Kushina rubbed her chin thinking her face making a cute pout in thought, "Okay, if you win I'll take up your offer to be your full apprentice, alongside Shizune-chan," the red head stated a small warm smiled appeared on the blonde woman's face. "However if I win, you have to be my future child's godmother," Kushina blushed rubbing the back of her head as Minato, Jiraiya, Shizune, Kakashi, Rin, and Tsunade's eye all widen. "Oops," she turned to Minato smiling faintly. "Um, Surprise?" the red head stated hesitantly as the blonde haired man promptly passed out. The red-haired woman giggled pulling out a pen, "Ooh, to good a moment to pass up, ya know."

XX End Flashback XX

Jiraiya looked down sadly Tsunade managed to get a Four of a Kind, only to get trumped by Kushina who pulled out the Royal Straight Flush. It was probably the only time Tsunade never complained about losing a hand, even as incredulous as that one. _ I mean what are the odds is it that you get to see a Royal Straight Flush that someone didn't cheat to get_. The perverted toad sage wandered into the Casino and took a few moments to look around listening intently for the familiar sounds of someone losing. He didn't have to wait long hearing a string of curses followed by a loud explosion coming from a slot machine that had just imploded from the impact of a fist colliding with it.

XXX

"Lady Tsunade," Shizune groaned rubbing her forehead. This had been the sixth slot machine the two had been to in the last hour and with each lost she saw her master get increasingly irritated the saki the older woman has been drinking since that morning hadn't helped matters either. The older woman had a hard time dealing with the deaths of her brother, her lover, and adoptive daughter slash second cousin. When the older woman begged to take Naruto to be raised and was denied by the council it had been the last straw she left the Hidden Leaf with Shizune herself in tow.

"Go easy on her Shizune, it's clearly the booze talking," someone stated behind them both. Both turning saw Jiraiya standing with his arms crossed shaking his head, "How are you Princess?"

The blonde Sannin scowled slightly grabbing her bottle of saki and chug a bit before glaring at the man, "What do you want you pervert?"

"What you don't think I didn't track you down to reminisce about old times?" the toad Sannin asked pursing his lips a bit noting she was drunker than usual. He glanced up at a nearby calendar wincing a bit at the date. _Wow, couldn't have picked a worse day to find her._ Today happened to be the birthday of her dead brother, Nawaki. "Bad time?"

"Damn right, now what do you want?" the slug Sannin hiccupped swaying ever so slightly obliviously not using her medical jutsu to block the effects of the alcohol.

With a sigh Jiraiya produced his orders from their sensei and waited for the inevitable explosion to follow even bracing himself for a possible impact of her fist. She was the first of three women he'd give his life for to protect, the second and third had passed on.

Tsunade gave the letter a bleary eyed look now using her jutsu to clear out the poisonous effects of the alcohol. When the letter came into focus she read through the first and was mildly surprised that her little godson knew the Rasengan already. "He mastered the Rasengan?"

Jiraiya let out the breath he didn't know he was holding nodding, "Apparently whoever wrote the letter in Minato's handwriting had included a hint in using Shadow Clones to speed up his training," he chuckled seeing her even more surprised. "Yes believe it or not he knows the Shadow Clone jutsu as well," his face grew pained though. "However he learned about that he is a Jinnchuriki the same night some big mouthed Chunin academy instructor named Mizuki set the boy up to steal the Forbidden Scroll."

Tsunade eyes darkened somewhat clenching the bottle of saki in her hand until the bottle shattered, she didn't say anything going back to reading the letter when she reached the part about asking that she return to the Hidden Leaf her hand crushed the note. "How dare he, I don't care how gifted this pink haired girl is I told him I would only return if I could raise Naruto," her tears fell. "Now he's a Genin he's practically an adult in the eyes of the village. Sarutobi-_sensei_ has the unmitigated gall to ask me to return to teach some girl medical jutsu and attempt to bribe me with my own Medical academy," her fury slowly reached the boiling point seeing Jiraiya sympathetic expression she knew he wasn't to blame for this, instead of belting him with her fist she like use to do when he got angry at him, their sensei, or Orochimaru she spun around and leveled six more slot machines before stomping out of the Casino. "I don't want a Medical academy, or to teach a new apprentice, or anything else to do with that Kami forsaken piece of shit village. I promised Kushina that I would raise Naruto if anything ever happen to her, and that fucking council stonewalled her last request because _Sarutobi-_sensei didn't bother to tell those asses who Naruto's parents were." More tears fell as she led both her former teammate and her apprentice through the streets before she stopped. "Why Jiraiya did you bring this up today of all days?!"

Jiraiya had the decency to look sheepish rubbing the back of his head which she found endearing as it reminded her of a certain redhead she been missing. "I'm sorry I lost track of the dates more focusing on finding you before you moved." The apology was earnest, "with Naruto now a Genin you could bring up your god-parenting duties again and your right maybe you should have pushed the fact your both related through the Uzumaki clan."

"He's what thirteen now wouldn't he resent that I show up now when I could have been there for him when he needed someone?" Tsunade asked.

"He might at first, so just explain the reason why," the Toad Sannin replied. "I would have raised him if given the opportunity but like you the council refused, so I bolstered his monthly allowance when I could," he smirked slyly looking at his top heavy teammate, "like you've done. Don't think I didn't notice the account you set up for him after you left the village."

Tsunade didn't respond to the jibe simply looked at the letter again in front of her was evidence that her godson had grown up without her. "Grandmother would be ashamed at our village for what they've done to a member of her clan. Kushina would have wrapped them all up in her chakra chains then proceeded to beat them within an inch of their lives," with a heavy sigh the blonde haired Sannin turned to her teammate. "I need to pack up."

"I'll be waiting princess," the Toad Sannin stated.

XXX

Sakura sighed burying herself into the crook of Naruto's arm pleasantly exhausted from their training session. She remembered several times before in her original timeline the two of them would be laying on the ground like this after training looking up at the sky. She could feel the burning in her muscles the cooling sweat on her arms and legs, the pleasant sensation of Naruto's arm wrapped around her shoulder. She couldn't be any more content with the world if she tried. She knew tomorrow team seven will be given the D-ranked assignment of hunting down the unholy terra called Tora. Following that will be the infamous C-Ranked mission turned A-Ranked mission to Wave, she was not looking forward to that. She was unsure on how to proceed if she tried to save both Haku and Zabuza which would deny Kabuto two people in the future to be used against Naruto. But there were so many others to protect, Gaara, Yugito, Fu, and many of the other Jinnchuriki that will fall prey to the Akatsuki. She had sent anonymous messages to each village that held the Jinnchuriki to keep closer eyes on them and warned them of the Akatsuki. _I just hope it will be enough_.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Land of Waves Arc – Part 1

"Kitsune in position," Kakashi listened in through his radio

"Vixen here, I've spotted the target," came the female member of his team.

"Emo-king, I'm on point why is this stupid cat so much trouble?" came the reply from the 'Last' Uchiha sounding mildly annoyed at his call-sign.

"She's been the bane of many a Genin for the last ten years, it's kind of a rite of passage nowadays just have to deal with it Sasuke," Kakashi stated gently.

"Hn," came the reply glancing at his two teammates who were circling around to get in front of the unholy terror.

"Quit complaining teme, it's not like you have to actually have to grab her," Naruto stated sounding more annoyed. "I still got scratches from the last time," the whisker marked blonde grumbled slightly as he moved into position, taking a few deep breaths before lunging out of the trees to grab the cat. "Gotcha," no sooner than he wrestled the cat into his arms the feline began clawing away. "OOOWWW! Damn it, Sakura-chan help!"

Kakashi heard some scuffling wincing at Naruto's screams of pain, "Naruto how bad this time?"

"Sakura's got it, but man I know why she fight's tooth and claw to get away but does she have to take it out on us we're only doing our jobs," The silver haired could hear Naruto's grimaces in pain this had been their third time completing this particular D-ranked mission. One of several that squad 7 have been doing since they were formed, he was mildly surprised that the teamwork exercises were needed less therefore he opened them up to training in chakra control, was about to start them on elemental manipulation, even had the chakra paper ready.

"Maybe if we talked to the Fire Daimyo's wife she'll listen and not torture the poor thing," Sakura suggested.

"It might be plausible when we get back to the tower we'll talk to her," Kakashi stated.

XXX

It took some doing but between Naruto's natural talent of making people see things the way he does and Sakura's rational explanations towards animal cruelty both managed to convince the Fire Daimyo's wife that what she was doing to Tora was cruel. The woman stared at them for a moment before hanging her head in shame gently petting Tora scratching her behind the ear like the rosette showed her. "Thank you both, Sakura-san, Naruto-kun, I will remember this," the woman stated a faint smile appeared on her face.

The large turned and pulled out her purse to pay for the D-ranked mission turning to the Chunin in charge of collections. The hokage pursed his lips trying to keep a smile off his face until the wife his long-time friend departed. "That was very diplomatic of the both of you, thank you. With what you've done here I suspect that the infamous Tora retrieval missions will no longer be a factor."

"Um, is it possible to get a C-Ranked mission now, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked after beaming at the praise his favorite old man gave him and Sakura.

"Have the three mastered the chakra control exercises I gave you?" the silver haired jonin asked.

"Hn, we did last week while you were reading your porn," Sasuke sighed arms crossed trying to decide if he should brood or not. He found it extremely hard lately, one his date with Ino panned out better than he expected, even dropped hints that she should train more to impress him. _I need to rebuild my clan, focus on being avenger afterward. _

"Hmm, Naruto did you finished with the five jutsu you were given?" Kakashi asked.

"Two weeks ago Kakashi-sensei, Shadow Clones are awesome," Naruto snickered seeing his sensei's face then they all heard several dull thumps to their left or right depending, they all turn to see the Hokage hammering his head into the assignment table.

"Minato, you little shit that's how you were able to finish your paperwork so fast," the old Hokage shouted tears cascading from his eyes. "Tobirama-sensei and Hashirama-sensei must have known as well."

Squad 7 and all the shinobi gathered sweat dropped watching their leader spaz out, "So, um, can we Kakashi-sensei, I mean I wanted to do one a month ago, but Sakura-chan pointed out I needed to work on my jutsu's and refine my chakra control, while it's not perfect I can hold myself upside down on a tree branch for half an hour," Naruto explained.

_Naruto has come a long way I was worried about that, sensei you would be proud of him. _"I suppose but only escort missions for right now, no bandit clearings or courier missions until I know you can you guys can handle the responsibilities," Kakashi stated.

"Wouldn't a courier mission be easier?" Sasuke stated.

"Yes and no, they have a higher probability of running into missing-nin or rival shinobi than the others because of the contents within the packages the courier contains, same with bandit clearings because it is most likely the bandit leader would be a missing-nin. Escorts while just as probable to get missing-nin the probability lowers depending on the client, escorting a foreign dignitary or the Fire Daimyo himself always requires an S-Ranked mission which means a full squad of Jonin or ANBU, because of the high priority," Kakashi explains.

"So it goes between a C-ranked to S-Ranked depending on the client, what if the client lies about the parameters of the mission, say a C-Ranked which should really be a B-Ranked or A-Ranked because there is a squad of high ranked missing-nin working for someone that opposes the client," Sakura asked casually thinking about what could occur in a few minutes.

The hokage frowned slightly, _this is speaking from experience I'm hearing something is very odd with this girl and I planned to find out what it is_. The old hokage steepled his fingers together thinking about how to approach the question. "It's usually a bad idea for the client to lie to us about the parameters of a mission, unless one they can't afford a higher ranked mission or two have ill will with one of our shinobi if that's the case usually the client will want a particular shinobi assigned to his mission and that will send a warning flag to me personally and I would have a small squad of ANBU following said team. If for some reason the former happens I would require the squad leader to send a message to me detailing the new mission parameters and I would send a back-up squad to help and charge the client in installments at a later date."

Sakura kept the frown off her face thinking back to the original Land of Waves mission and the FUBAR that had occurred. She glanced over at Kakashi who looked a bit puzzled at the explanation; _he never knew that procedure did Minato never teach him that did it slip his mind._ She watched the silver haired jonin puzzled expression change to that of a thoughtful one before his eyes closed looking regretful. _It slipped his mind, glad to know it was ignorance rather than arrogance that nearly caused Sasuke his life and gave Naruto one his deeper emotional scars._

A few minutes later the members were introduced to Tazuna, and given their assignment after the drunken bridge builder insulted the trio. "Squad you're dismissed except Sakura please stay I like to speak to you," the third stated calmly. Before departing Naruto gave the rosette haired girl a kiss to the cheek.

XXX

"You are not what you appear to be Ms. Haruno," Sarutobi stated holding his fingers in front of his face watching the girl. "I must ask, how come you've seem to make a complete one eighty from the girl I've watched since you've started the academy."

"A fast track to the Uchiha fangirl of the month award," Sakura stated evenly. "I will not stretch the truth with you like I did with Ino, Lord Hokage. Naruto-kun would never forgive me both now or in the previous timeline."

Sarutobi frowned deeply, "what do you mean?"

"Originally fifteen years from now I was named 7th Hokage after my beloved husband was killed by a traitor, I used one of my husband's newly created space-time jutsu to go back into the past and change it so I wouldn't have to be Hokage, where I could have my beloved husband in my arms again, and hopefully have his children after ours were brutally taken away from us," Sakura's eyes fell with tears.

The old hokage listened and was both shocked at what he heard and from what he could see and feel from the girl before she was giving him the truth. "I see…, this space-time jutsu were you intending to go this far back?"

"Not exactly I wanted to go back to when our team entered the Chunin exams and kill the traitor while the bastard slept!" Sakura growled slightly.

"I take it you're the one involved in Naruto's improvements over the last month," the old hokage replied getting a handle on the girl.

The rosette haired girl took a few deep breaths, "My Naruto-kun needs this I will not lose him a second time except to old age which I hope won't happen till he's a hundred and fifty or more."

"Uzumaki longevity," Sarutobi snorted slightly looking a bit peeved. "Mito-sama looked to be in her late fifties when Kushina first arrived and when I got my first wrinkle, it was just unfair."

Sakura sighed, "You're taking this all well Lord Hokage," she stated softly.

"I've seen space-time jutsu in action during the first shinobi war Sakura, there is nothing it cannot accomplish, plus we're speaking of Naruto here, if anyone can do something outside the limits of the impossible it be him," the old man paused thinking. "Just speaking of this has already set things in motion and the ripples are cascading across the pond."

"In order to get the ripples to flow the way we want I need to drop some information on you," Sakura stated softly. "Obito Uchiha is still alive and it was he who killed your wife, and forced both Minato-sama and Kushina-sama to give their lives for the village and their son. I must also inform you that there are at least three more Uzumaki in the world, the first dies in three months at the hands of Shikamaru Nara and Temari of the Desert, the second follows the traitor and later dies at his hands, the third one razes the Hidden Leaf to the ground and is killed by Naruto, he is beyond saving at this point."

The old hokage sighed grimly looking at the rosette haired girl who seemed to transform into her former roll of 7th Hokage, he did not see the fangirl that once chased the brooding Uchiha what he saw before him was a woman in the body of her thirteen year old trying to get her life back even if it meant cheating to do so, _But we're ninja cheating is part of the job description and she found the ultimate way to cheat._ "What do you need from me Lady 7th?"

"Nothing but your undivided attention and a promise that you'll take every step to see my instructions because starting today the Hidden Leaf is going to cheat the Akatsuki, Danzo Shimura, and Orochimaru by taking them out before they know what hits them, starting with that lowly snake in the grass, Lord 3rd." Sakura stated calmly she could almost hear the ANBU in the room. "This is what's going to happen in the next three months that needs to be changed…"

XXX

The third Hokage sat back grimacing at the information he slowly began to absorb not only from the Shadow clones that did the paperwork but the tale Sakura Haruno told him before leaving to start her mission with her squad. "It's very clarifying and disheartening to know the date, hour, minute, and second of one's death I doubt many would appreciate such foreknowledge."

Tsunade and Jiraiya appeared from the shadows looking both pale and sadden, "killed by one of your own students not the way to go out," Jiraiya stated sadly thinking about how much he failed Nagato and Konan judging by what Sakura explained. "To have my words to them twisted and perverse by my student's student."

"Well we now know what's been going on the last few months, we have information needed to try and prevent not only the war but prevent the Akatsuki from ever achieving their goal," Tsunade stated feeling her core rocked by the descriptions the rosette haired girl had given. She then smirked for a second, "I trained a hokage."

"Meh, so you only trained one, I get credit for training two," the perverted toad-sannin puff out his chest.

"Are you two going to revert back to Genin?" the old hokage raised an eyebrow inwardly he was happy at this turn of events, barring the news that was given to see his two students making jokes like they did before the second war pleased him.

"Sorry, Sarutobi-sensei," the two Sannin stated together, "So what's the plan?" Tsunade asked trying to not to sound impatient.

"First I need you Jiraiya to get in touch with your network, orders are to locate the Two, Four, Five, Six, Seven, and Eight tailed Jinnchuriki and give them messages, same goes for their Kages minus the 4th Mizukage, if what we're told is true his mind is lost. After that send a message to the Hidden Mist rebels and state that I will have a contingent of ANBU and Hunter-nin to support them, if things are true then their internal matter involves an external one of our making," seeing Jiraiya nod. "Tsunade I know you still hold a lot of pain inside from both the war and Kushina's death," the blonde woman nodded sadly. "I had no knowledge of what the civilian council put in motion and I should have, no more Naruto was born of shinobi parents has a living member of the Uzumaki clan within these walls and you were named his godmother by his mother, that carriage of injustice is to be rectified immediately, I will have Squad 8 move all his things to the Senju compound and inform him upon his return from his C-ranked mission that you're going to be looking after him," Sarutobi's eyes were a lite with a fire his two students hadn't seen since the second war which in turned fired them both up. "Neko," he addressed his ANBU captain who appear standing erect.

"Hai, Hokage-sama," the female ANBU stated strongly.

"I want you to organize the ANBU and Hunter-nin detachment to the Mist and I want four squads of our best ANBU waiting in the wings," Sarutobi's eyes could both freeze the molten core of the planet and at the same time cause the planet erupt in a fiery inferno. "Until the Akatsuki, Orochimaru, and Obito are dead the Village Hidden in the Leaf are at war, we will protect Minato-kun and Kushina-chan's son, we will not tire, we will not stop, and we will prove why the Hidden Leaf is the strongest of the Elemental Nations."

All those that gathered in the small office nod, "Hai!"

Author's Note: Finally I've broken the writer's block on this fic, and yes I made Sakura the 7th Hokage which is interesting to note and many overlook certain details about her. She was trained by Tsunade, two with Chiyo's helped she fought and killed an opponent that killed the 3rd Kazekage, so making her Hokage isn't that much of a stretch considering that Tsunade said herself Sakura surpassed her in virtually every area and only lacked experience. So it's not much a stretch if you think about to see her named Hokage. As for the details about how Naruto dies it'll come out in a few chapters during this current arc. Like Sakura Uzumaki this fic is going to go a bit slower so don't expect many uploads right away.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

Land of Waves Arc – Part 2

Sakura Uzumaki nee Haruno leaned heavily against a pillar not far from the front gate trying to get her emotions under control after spilling everything she knew that would happen in the next three months. The Chunin exams, the Sand-Sound invasion, Tsunade being brought in to be Hokage, Sasuke defection, and finally Naruto leaving the village to train. This wasn't what caused her emotions to rattle no if anything it was like a burden had been partially lifted from her shoulders, while she was a thirty-three year old trapped in a thirteen year's old body, she was also a grieving widow and mother, she barely had two months to mourn the passing of her family before she was thrown into the Hokage chair, and barely a year after that before she found her husband's jutsu. She two shuddering sighs before she schooled up her features, she hadn't expected the toll relating certain events would take on her mostly retelling Naruto's three near death battles in the coming months, _When that baka finally got round to telling about the Tsunade mission I nearly punched his teeth in, if it wasn't for Kurama he would have died in that battle with Kabuto_. Taking another calmly breath feeling Naruto and Sasuke approaching she turned and smiled watching her teammates approach.

XXX

Unlike the first time the journey toward the land of waves was a quiet one, Sasuke was doing what he did best brood. Kakashi was doing what he did when on a mission, read his porn while passively scanning the terrain, Sakura herself was also passively scanning the terrain while checking and re-checking her medical supplies trying to keep busy. But it was Naruto who was the most out of character as he currently had his hands clasped together and looking at them in concentration. "What are ya doing, kid?" Tazuna asked watching him intently.

"Trying to cut a leaf with wind based chakra," Naruto explained grabbing Kakashi's attention.

"So you know your elemental affinity already Naruto?" the silver haired jonin asked looking confused.

"Yeah Kakashi-sensei I asked Iruka-sensei about after our last meeting. Ya see sensei, got this scroll with a really cool jutsu and it explained the jutsu wasn't completed also it stated I needed to add an elemental affinity to it. Sorry I didn't come to you about it," Naruto stated looking a little guilty.

"That's fine Naruto I know you and Iruka have a longer history together, just please if you need any suggestions or training in the future please come and talk to me about, same goes for Sasuke and Sakura," Kakashi stated, the trio nods Sakura schooling her features, in the previous time-line she hadn't thought to ask Kakashi for any suggestions on training, of course in the previous timeline she never took a serious interest in training until Naruto had been seriously injured by Sasuke and Sasuke himself defected to Orochimaru for power. By then she became Tsunade's apprentice and Naruto became Jiraiya's, in a sense with Sasuke joining Orochimaru they became the Neo-Sannin.

"I will Kakashi-sensei, believe it!" Naruto's foxy-smile was let loose.

"So how far a long are you?" Kakashi asked casually.

Naruto pouted holding up the leaf an edge of it was missing, "Not as much as I like, can't use my Shadow clones until we stop."

"Okay that's understandable what about the five jutsu the Hokage and I gave you?" Kakashi responded.

"I got them the old man stated that A to B-ranked ninjutsu should come easier to me because of my huge chakra reserves says it is natural for me though I'm confused," Naruto frowned slightly. "He said it wasn't because of my condition that I have such high reserves he said it was because it's part of my bloodline as a member of the Uzumaki," Naruto fidgeted as they walked. "Do I, do I have a clan Kakashi-sensei?"

Kakashi seemed to pause in his steps for a moment and even Sasuke to take a minor interest. Kakashi took a deep breath, "I assumed all of you noticed the swirl all of our Jonin and Chunin wear on the flak jackets," the trip nodded. "That is to honor and mourn our most beloved allies they were both fear and respected in the arts of Fuinjutsu, and yes Naruto the Uzumaki were a clan your clan on your mother's side."

"You're telling me the dobe had a clan, I don't buy it," Sasuke snorted.

"It's the truth and not just any clan, they along with the Senju and Uchiha helped found our village, gave us the seals we use to guard our gates, seal our equipment, and help finance our missions. Not only that but Naruto's clan mate married the First Hokage," Kakashi explained.

Tazuna, Naruto, and Sasuke looked stunned which was the silver haired jonin expected what he didn't expect was the fact the rosette haired member of his team seemed to know this already. "I take it you knew?" he asked the girl who gave a guilty expression when Naruto turned his gaze to her.

"I did passing research on Naruto's surname hoping to find out if he had living family, wanted to surprise him with what I found on one of our dates," Sakura responded then felt two arms wrap around her, she looked up and smiled inwardly at her future husband. _My Naruto-kun_, she thought to herself.

"W-Why didn't anyone tell me I had a clan?" Naruto asked.

"Because like Sasuke your probably one of the last of your clan, Naruto," Kakashi then went on to explain the start of the third war.

"But there could be others scattered around the elemental nations couldn't there be, I mean what are the character traits of my clan?" Naruto asked.

The group began walking again, "Every Uzumaki had bright red hair and at least one defining blood line out a dozen, Mito and your Naruto were both blessed with the Uzumaki longevity bloodline, and both were grandmaster's with seals, Kushina had one additional bloodline she could manufacture an ability only the Sage of the Six Paths had previously created."

Naruto froze a second, "K-Kushina was that my mom's name?"

Kakashi looked back and nodded, "yes that was her name."

Sasuke's already pale features went sheet white, "Y-you mean the dobe's mother," he shook his head trying to deny what his own mother told him in passing once.

XXX _Flashback_ XXX

_Mitoko Uchiha was looking through some scrolls frantically, "Itachi-kun please I need to find it."_

_ Sasuke entered from outside looking at his mother in confusion as she and his older brother were searching through their family records. "What-cha doing kaasan?"_

_ "Looking for our family will, the ANBU found Naruto Uzumaki in an alley this morning beaten within an inch of his of life, I've had it with the civilian council and their stonewalling not only us but Lady Tsunade and Lord Jiraiya about our right to look after him again as far as I'm concern," Mitoko stated flipping through another set of scrolls. _

_ "Why should we care about that dobe," Sasuke grumbled before he could react he felt and heard a stinging slap across his face knocking him to the ground, looking up tears in his eyes was arguably the most frightening thing he ever saw in his life his mother was glaring at him with her fully evolved Sharingan with both anger and disappoint so profound he had to look down in shame._

_ "Never ever say that word about Kushina's son in my presence again," the Uchiha matriarch stated softly. "If things had been reversed for whatever reason I know for a fact that Kushina would be the one searching her scrolls to find any loophole to have her godson to raise."_

_ "Wait you're Naruto's godmother?" Itachi asked._

_ The Uchiha matriarch shook her head sadly, "I would have taken the job gladly, but Tsunade was already named, something about losing at poker," the woman giggled slightly losing her anger at her dear departed friend's memory. "But she is your godmother Itachi and Sasuke's I was going to use that stipulation in our family will to hope pressure the civilian council to letting us have him."_

_ Fugaku chose that moment to entered, "You'll not find the will," he stated coldly, "I do not want that creature in this compound."_

_ Mitoko eyes flashed, "How dare you, he is not a creature he's a little boy who needs love and affection."_

_ "I will not have that brat in this house," Fugaku's eyes transformed. "This isn't about his burden; I refuse to look after 'HIS' son."_

_ "That man was my teammate and his wife was my best friend, this is not over Fugaku I will fight you on this like I should have from the beginning," the woman said the last words in regret._

_ Sasuke and Itachi sat quietly watching their parents clash in a battle of wills and this time their mother held her ground when all previous times she wilted to their father's demands. _What makes that dobe so special that kaasan would stand up to tousan? _Later on that same day Itachi would massacre his clan._

XXX _End Flashback _XXX

"I can't believe that dobe's mother was my godmother," Sasuke growled softly clenching his hand causing everyone even Sakura to look at him in shock. "I completely forgot about it."

"How did you forget?" Sakura asked softly.

"Mother brought it up the morning before the massacre after the ANBU found Naruto nearly beaten to death the night before, she even stood up to my father which she rarely did," Sasuke glanced at Naruto who looked absolutely dumbfounded by all the information that he was given over such a simplistic question.

"Did your brother get upset at your mother standing up to your father?" Kakashi asked actually proud of his sensei's teammate.

"No he seemed happy about it," Sasuke stated almost too softly for them to hear.

Naruto meanwhile seemed lost in complete thought as they walked on.

A few moments of quiet passed between the group when both Sakura and Kakashi notice something completely out of place on the side of the road especially when it hadn't rain in weeks, only Sakura however knew exactly what was the cause. Kakashi had also notice and watched Sakura as she dug into her medical pouch to produce a pair of black gloves and sliding them on. _So she saw it to, she's either far more observant than I first gave her credit for, then again she stopped being a fangirl and judging by her increase chakra reserves and the way she picked up things during the D-ranked missions clearly show she gotten yards better in the last month but how much better._ No sooner had his group passed the genjutsu set down that the trap was sprung.

XXX

Gouzu and Meizu launched out of the genjutsu into the air wrapping their chains around Kakashi before the his genin could react he seemingly was sliced to ribbons. "One down, let's get the target," Gouzu muffled voice stated.

He and his brother maneuvered toward their target only to have three figures jumping in front of them, "**Fire Style: Fire Dragon Jutsu!**" Naruto shouted acting on instinct using his newly acquired fire jutsu, breathing out a larger than normal fire dragon aimed right at the two chunin who jumped away only for Gouzu to encounter a gloved punched to the face shattering his jaw and his brother receiving a kick to the back of his head courtesy of Uchiha wrapped covered leg. Both Chunin were dropped hard, "Color me impressed," Kakashi stated casually from behind his team.

"Glad to see you still kicking Kakashi-sensei," Sakura smiled while Naruto stood shaking.

"Are all fights like this?" the whisker marked blonde asked.

"Most of the time yes, you'll need to react fast or things will go badly in a hurry, good use of jutsu Naruto you saved the client and got your opponents in position for your teammates to take them out," Kakashi eye smiled. He walked up to the unconscious duo studying them, "Gouzu and Meizu the Demon Brothers, B-Ranked Chunin formerly of the Hidden Mist village now, missing-nin their trademark is relentless assault, they basically keep attacking until their opponents and their targets are dead. Question is who was the target?"

Naruto was still trying to calm down, "they were after the old man, Kakashi-sensei," he stated.

Kakashi nodded glancing at Sakura wondering if she knew about this already, considering she brought up the protocol about a client lying before they left the village. "I'll send a message to the Leaf requesting back-up in the meantime Naruto, you and Sasuke tie up our prisoners and set up camp we'll be here a while."

"Hn, fine come on dobe," Sasuke grunted Naruto gave the Uchiha an angry face glare but complied

"While you're doing that I'll have a chat with our client," Kakashi stated coolly who noticed the bridge builder shaking while sipping his sake.

XXX

Author's Note: I know the chapters are fairly short I'm trying to keep them compartmentalized for a reason one it lets me think about the next chapter better and two leaves everyone wanting more. Now I'll say up front I have no earthly idea if Kushina ever named a godmother or not, it hasn't said in canon if there is one so I can only assume that she never named one, or that the Godmother is dead which means one of two candidates Mitoko or Rin.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Land of Waves Arc – Part 3

Kakashi sighed heavily looking at Tazuna after the elder after said person gave the reasons he did for lying about the rank of the mission. "You should have discussed this in detail with the Hokage he would have allowed your town to pay off the debt of an A-ranked mission through installments."

"I-I didn't know this was my first time dealing with any shinobi village," Tazuna stated honestly.

The silvered haired sighed again raking his fingers through his hair mentally thanking Rin and his sensei for teaching him a lot of patience after Obito was killed, he winced slightly thinking about his other two departed precious people the few he could count on one hand easily. _All I have left is Naruto and Sasuke, one born from Kushina and the other born of the Uchiha clan. I cannot fail them as I did my sensei and teammates._ He glanced over at Naruto who still trying to calm down from the recent battle with the Demon Brothers his only source of comfort was the rosette haired girl sitting across from the blonde, _for whatever reason that girl managed to overcome whatever fantasy she had for Sasuke dropping that annoying fangirlism, became a very capable kunoichi and now is practically throwing herself at Naruto, if her body language is any indication._

XXX

"Naruto you need to control your breathing," Sakura stated gently.

"But man that was so intense Sakura-chan, I never thought things would get that way, believe it!" Naruto muttered breathlessly gasping for air.

"I know am I'm glad you didn't freeze up, _like last time anyway,_" Sakura stated the last mentally she gently messaged his arms while her other hand kept his chin tilted to look her in the eyes knowing that presence was the only thing keeping him from going into shellshock, unfortunately this was having unintentional side effect on her, _**If Kakashi-sensei, Tazuna, and the teme weren't here we would take Naruto-chan into the bushes and make him a man, CHA!**_ Sakura sweat-dropped listening to her inner personality perv out at her intimate touches while the thoughts were present as always she was in mission mode where she put them on the back burner until the mission was complete, right now Naruto needed his teammate to be there to help him through his first official ninja battle and the aftermath, and not a thirty-three year old hormonally crazed sex deprived widow in his thirteen year girlfriends body. "Okay Naruto I'm going to show you something that will help," she took off the suffix to get his attention as she changed her sitting position into that of a meditation sitting position. "Now sit like how I am." She watched him do exactly, "okay now close your eyes," she nods mentally as he did what he was told. "Next thing to do is focus on your breathing, take long slow breaths, it'll help slow your heart rate and ease your body into being calm," she smiled faintly finding it highly ironic that the very meditation techniques he taught her in her previous life she was now teaching him. "How do you feel, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto smiled faintly, "Better thanks Sakura-chan."

"Good now I want to teach you something else since you're like that how to meditate and get better control of your chakra aside from the exercises we been doing back in the village," Sakura explained. "To find your center I want you to picture your chakra as best you can." She knew deep down this exercise would pretty much put Naruto in touch with Kurama, but she needed them to build an early bridge of communication so she could use the jutsu Ino taught on the fox she needed him as ally to achieve her overall desired goal, Naruto beating the unholy hell out the Akatsuki. She hadn't expected the 3rd Hokage to catch on so quickly to her but it was an added benefit, she now had someone or someone's to help shape the upcoming events. She wanted so much to jump to her feet and ram her fist into the Uchiha's gut but in this current timeline he wasn't the cruel family murdering monster he was in her timeline yet, and she would take great pains to prevent it from ever happening. _I also need to convince Karin and Fu to join the Leaf both for Naruto's sake. _ Fu had been incapacitated by the Zombie brothers in the previous timeline and her biju extracted causing untold amount of pain to her beloved husband when he finally saw her Edo Tenshi corpse on the battlefield, Karin had died at Sasuke's hands the moment he found out she was an Uzumaki, figuring if he couldn't have a family neither could Naruto. _That Teme I hate him so much!_ Sakura's eyes squeezed shut for a second almost missing Naruto startled jump when he finally delved deep enough into his mediation to be pulled into his mindscape. "He's there, I better hurry," she glanced over her shoulder for a second before using a series of hands signs. "Mind Art: Soul Entry Jutsu," she whispered before gently tapping Naruto's forehead with her fingers. To anyone outside looking at them the rest of the group would think that the two individuals were meditating.

XXX

Naruto found himself utterly surprised when the longer he focused on his chakra more it seem to sharpen until finally he felt a pull, before he could stop it every spiraled until he found himself in a huge dank sewer one side a small walkway filled thousands of doors on the other a massive gate and in the middle was a strip of paper with the word seal. "**So the jailor finally comes to meet that jailed,**" a deep rumbling voice stated moving close to the large cage Naruto spotted a massive head with two large red animal eyes glaring down at him and a huge row of razor sharp teeth.

"The nine-tails," Naruto whispered in awe. "W-Where are we?"

"**In your mind little kit, while I reside in your gut this little area is reserved for my consciousness and yours,**" The hug fox elaborated before looking up squinting slightly looking at the shadows behind the blonde haired boy. "**We will talk another time little kit time to go,**" the fox stated before the boy could shout his image disappeared from the room. "**You have much courage to come into this realm knowing I will protect the kit's mind from all outside influence save my own, little vixen.**"

The fox however was surprised with the figure that stepped out, gone was the teenage girl he thought would appear feeling the effects of the jutsu as she entered the mindscape. Before him stood a woman dressed in the standard jonin attire but instead of a green flak jacket it was replaced with a white one with a pair of red crosses partially obscured by the long orange hokage style hokage with black flames at the bottom. The woman had long pink haired that reach passed her shoulder blades, and bright green eyes. "Not what you were expecting, Kurama?"

"**I see a time-space jutsu, where you actually passed through time into the past, when did you discover his jutsu?**" the fox asked.

Sakura smirked slightly, "I didn't actually I only found it after my husband was murdered by the lousy traitorous bastard Uchiha killed him and our children," her eyes began to water. "I was named Hokage in my husband's stead and spent three miserable three years trying to live up to his legacy when all I wanted was to see him smile, hold him, make love to him, and give him the huge family he was denied all his life, that TEME TOOK IT ALL AWAY!" Sakura closed her eyes using the meditation techniques she learned before focusing on the fox looking down at her in amusement. "Well I'm here to change that future and make a new one, and I like your help to do that."

"**If it involves killing Uchiha, then I'm in for that reason alone but I sense there's more,**" Kurama snickered softly leaning down putting his nose through the bars.

"Yes, there's more and I need to give you the memories of the Kurama I knew from my time for you to completely understand what I'm trying to prevent and what I'm to accomplish," Sakura explained.

"**Interesting did you and the blonde vixen become intimate at one point in the future?**" the fox snicker at the rosette haired woman's facial expression which was one of outright disgust.

"Me and Ino-pig no way!" she snapped then heard the fox's snicker growling slightly. She sighed looking at the fox, "Will you agree?"

The fox snickered for a few more minutes looking down at the woman, "**Fine, yes I agree if anything to get you to leave I tire of this.**"

Sakura smirked in the shadows as she went into another series of hand signs ending in the Yamanaka open pyramid, "Mind Art Jutsu: Time Stream Release!"

The fox reeled for a few moments as the images cascaded into its mind before slumping to the floor. "**Not what I was expecting, I'm sorry about the comment earlier still it was food for thought,**" the fox snickered again.

"I can barely control myself around my now teenage husband and you put a lesbian fantasy on par with something the pervert would cook up into my head, do you have any idea how horny I am right now!" Sakura shouted.

The fox laughed, "**Then give the kit his memories take up him into the room at the old bridge builders house and take him like a proper mate should.**"

"Are you out of your mind, I may have my thirty-three year old mind but both Naruto and my body are only thirteen years old," Sakura explained.

"**And both shinobi, adults in the eyes of the village, but this discussion is pointless what are your plans involving the little traitor and Akatsuki,**" Kurama stated finally getting serious.

"We need to push everything up considerably and keep the Akatsuki reeling so that bastard Obito can't implement the war. We also need to prevent the snake bastard from giving Sasuke the curse seal," the rosette haired woman explained. "I solved at least part of it I think, I let the 3rd Hokage in on everything I'm sure he's informed Jiraiya and Tsunade-sensei by now."

"**And you worried about the fact you made a terrible Hokage, you've made good decisions so far, your father-in-law, sensei, and husband would be proud,**" the fox stated in almost reverence and warmth.

"I didn't accept being hokage for the right reasons, Kurama," Sakura replied sadly. "Konohamaru stated he wasn't ready, Shikamaru thought it be too troublesome, and every other good candidate was dead," the rosette looked up. "I did it because I felt I needed to keep my sanity spending long hours in the home Naruto-kun and my children died in hurt too much."

"**It won't happen this time around, we'll make sure of that, little vixen,**" the fox's eyes flashed.

Sakura looked up nodding, "Here's what you need to do to and how you can convince Naruto to do it…"

XXX

Both Sakura and Naruto came out of their meditation roughly the same time, Naruto slightly stunned and worried while Sakura tried to keep herself from smirking at another piece of her overall plan working. "You okay Naruto-kun?" she asked.

"I don't think I'll do that again," Naruto said softly.

Sakura shook her head, "better to talk to him understand him," she said softly.

Naruto frowned, "how you know I'd get pulled into see him?"

Sakura mentally cursed at his observational skills again, _Damn it I keep underestimating him just like I did the first time, if I do what Kurama suggested Naruto's childhood will be gone and I don't want to do that but if I don't I could lose him because he might not trust me or push me away and that's worse, what do I do?_ Sakura bit her lower lip not sure what to decide when everyone turned as three figures entered the clearing three figures Sakura hadn't thought in a million years would appear as the back-up they requested.

"Lord Jiraiya, Princess Tsunade, Shizune, what an unexpected surprise," Kakashi stated looking dumbfounded.

"Heard you needed help, three of us currently weren't doing anything figure we'd lend a hand, plus the two of us need to talk to two of your genin anyway, now as good a time as any," Jiraiya smiled his no-nonsense perverse smile before glancing in Sakura and Naruto's direction.

Sakura slumped her shoulders and lowered her head, _Kuso, if they're here than I don't have a choice now damn it. I wanted to give Naruto time to at least have this mission before giving him his memories to save his friend Haku before things go south but I made too many ripples change too much too fast, _the rosette haired girl paused in thinking a perverse thought from her inner entered her mind. _**Look on the bright side if Naruto-kun doesn't hate us after getting his memories we'll get laid, CHA!**_ Sakura winced slightly as well as blushed then she sighed heavily causing Naruto to look at her, "I'm sorry Naruto-kun, please don't hate me for this," Sakura whispered earning a confused look from her beloved blonde as she moved her hands into the same hand signs she used for Kurama ending with the open Yamanaka pyramid, "Mind Art Jutsu: Time Stream Release!"

Author's Note: Ooh I bet people are going hate this cliffhanger a lot but tis necessary to get more people to read. As more plot bunnies begin to hop, I like give over two of my fics to any who want them, The Tenchagan is officially dead and The Sage Reborn needs a new home others will be continuing just slower rates than they started and would love suggestions on them. Now this is an inspirational fic that I made after reading EroSlackerMicha's 'Blondes Have More Fun' and 'We Are' which I hope he continues to write on as I enjoyed that one just as much the spiritual spin off of Blondes. Glad he posted a comment for this fic and found it entertaining, personally I don't think it's as good as his but I'm glad he's enjoying it. As for Sasuke in this fic no he won't be a prick, as much as I hate him as a character in canon I've adopted a new philosophy in regards to characters in fan fics, good writing can make a hate-able character like Sasuke or for those that hate Sakura make a character look awesome even though you hate them with a passion. So with said I'll be a little more open minded in the future reading certain fics but rest assured I still think Sasuke should be run over by a truck while having his skin removed with a dull rusty spoon.


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